Ignited!

splendid advice

The day started with an amazing Facebook message from my mentor and friend, Kabita Chakraborty. She is an amazing inspiration and speaks the truth without embellishments. Kind words packed withgenerous doses of comfort which signifies empathy. She is definitely the go to for advice on research, life and fun! An excerpt of her message:-

"Fieldwork can be lonely in the beginning, and you go through periods of  wanting to pack up and leave or feeling you are wasting your time. Everyone goes through this, and it is a part of the process of rapport building and acclimatization."

Not many research books actually tell you this, we never get the back-end of research unless it is published into a glamorized book. I decided earlier on that I was going to commit to sharing with a community of peers and loved ones. I really do not know how to separate the public from the private. Why bother? I guess in that sense, Kabita has always been upfront with her own experience on the field. I hope she publishes it some day for the benefit of those who want to do research as well. 

Genevieve Bajala

                                                                  Genevieve Bajala

Genevieve is the current General Manager of MAPARBEMPCO, a cooperative which owns and manages an oil palm plantation in Sultan Kudrat. It is a massive operation of almost 800 hectares of land. She was previously involved in the organizing of the residents of Mapantig Barangay who acquired this plantation from its previous capitalist owner. It is a model cooperative which has won numerous awards for its successful take-over and management of the plantation.

                                    MAPARBEMPCO Logo (Spelling error here)

Kenram Plantation

Kenram Plantation is the plantation which was successfully taken over by its workers as well as residents from a barangay, Mapantig. To date, it has developed and prospered due to the effective management of the plantation. This was by no means an easy process. There has been bloodshed as well as immense conflict of interests of all parties involved. This entire process started in 1995 and ended in 2002 with the successful transfer of land ownership to the cooperatives, MAPARBEMPCO and KARBEMPCO in 2002. 

women's involvement

Genevieve and I had a very interesting discussion about women's participation in the cooperative. She spoke exclusively about MAPARBEMPCO which she manages. She delineated many issues which are excellent leads to follow through:-

a) The Board of Directors are made up of entirely men (out of 300 members).

b) Only 10 women members make up officers in main committees.

c) Women generally refrain from contesting the elections process to become 

    board members.

d) There are about 46 women out of 300 members.

Genevieve herself, mentioned that she is very keen to understand why women limit their participation to officers' level or membership in certain committees. It will be very crucial to explore this in the focus group discussions(FDGs) with members. 

This is the level of involvement of women at various levels of the plantation:-

a) 46 cooperative members ) joint owners of the land.

b) 16 loose fruit pickers (non-members at the production level)

c) 10 officers who have been elected to be members of committees - 

    Education, Audit and Elections.

d) 7 - work at the management level ( 2 are cooperative members). They are 
    appointed to the position.

I would like to administer the survey among 25 women at MAPARBEMPCO but pay more attention to FDGs by selecting the appropriate participants. I would like to compare KARBEMPCO with MAPARBEMCO as well. 

I did an informative interview with Genevieve which I will have to transcribe today. 

                                  MAPARBEMPCO Management Officer