Leticia’s Story: Growing Food, Income, and Resilience

Leticia’s family depended on her husband’s fishing—sometimes enough to eat, sometimes nothing at all. Bright moon nights, storms, and damaged fishing gear often left them without food. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she joined a planting drive, determined to create a more reliable source of nutrition.

Saltwater flooding made ground level gardening almost impossible, but Leticia refused to give up. She mobilised her family to build raised beds from bamboo, rocks, old containers, nets, and coconut shells. Slowly, their garden flourished. Today she grows bananas, papaya, bok choy, beans, eggplant, squash, and leafy greens—enough to feed her family year round and earn extra income selling vegetables within the village.

Her produce sells easily on her home island. “We now have food any time of the year,” she says.

The Philippines Developers Foundation’s planting drives have helped 1,737 households across ten villages grow food, strengthen livelihoods, and prepare for future disasters—with support from CWS for materials, training, and community mini markets.