UP ISSI is mentoring the Sungko Seaweeds Farmers Association (SUSWEFAS), a community-based social enterprise based in Bantayan, Northern Cebu, in their danggit (dried fish) processing operations with a newly established fish drying facility.
The said facility was a grant from non-government organizations Lutheran World Relief (LWR) and Tambuyog Development Center (TDC), which partnered to help the typhoon-devastated fishery-based livelihoods in the area. Two super typhoons, Yolanda and Ruby, internationally codenamed Haiyan and Hagupit respectively, devastated Central Visayas in 2013 and 2014, leaving numerous losses of lives, properties and sources of livelihood.
To speed up the region’s recovery, LWR and TDC established a fish drying facility to improve the post-harvest and value-addition capacity of the community in Sungko, Bantayan, Northern Cebu.
UP ISSI is preparing a business plan for and guiding the management of SUSWEFAS until the third quarter of the year.