Tags: Entrepreneurship, Handicrafts, Livelihood Programs
By KC Santos
MANDALUYONG CITY, METRO MANILA – Manikako started as the creative arm of the House of Comfort Art Network (ArtHOC), a non-government organization that promotes the arts as a medium for therapy and creativity for disadvantaged children.
Manikako is now a group of youth advocates whose goal is to make something from scrap and using it to make someone else’s life better.
Led by Hannah Liongoren and Gabie Osorio, Manikako combines arts and crafts, sewing, and doll collecting in its advocacy. Using donated ribbons, threads, buttons and other scrap clothing materials, the group also conducts doll-making workshops for children from poor communities and orphanages in Manila.
“The way we do it, each child must be paired with a volunteer ate or kuya. They will then discuss what doll the child wants to create and why. The idea is there is to encourage them to make the doll for someone else, never for themselves,” Hannah says.
As the head seamstress, Gabie adds that the do-it-yourself concept behind the workshop teaches children the value of recycling and making do with what’s available.
“It boosts their resourcefulness because they have limited materials to work on. By teaching them how to upcycle, we teach them how to give value and explore their artistic potentials using scrap materials,” she says.
Students from Manila-based universities are some of the volunteer for the workshops which is in line with Manikako’s goal to involve the youth to participate in the cause.
All members of Manikako have day jobs and to help sustain the funding for the group’s projects, Manikako regularly signs up for toy conventions, bazaars or solicits help by organizing events like auctioning doll creations by local artists as a fund-raising project.
Manikako items, usually in kits, are sold in toy conventions and bazaars from P75 to P300. Hannah and Gabie also have a variety of designs, which clients can choose from if they want their dolls custom-made and have a personal touch to it.
Over the past five years, Manikako has helped communities from Payatas, Smokey Mountain, Batangas and a community of mothers in Pasig who earn from making the doll kits.
Being very hands-on, Hannah and Gabie say sustaining the workshops is challenging and fulfilling at the same time.
“You left a mark that they will never forget and it’s not just in a one-way creative aspect. We see a positive outcome both from the children and the volunteers in how the workshops make them feel after the entire process,” Gabie says.
With an underlying concept of “creating happiness,” Manikako continues its goal to give enjoyment to children one stitch at a time.
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