"I want to study civil engineering in Manila", says Vivinia's thirteen old daughter Zaira. She is confident young girl and knows what she wants.
As we talk to Vivinia about her children's education, the tears well in her eyes and she has to excuse herself as she goes to fetch a tissue. She is passionate about giving her children a proper education. She knows that for them to have any chance at breaking away from poverty, they must get a tertiary level degree.
She also knows that it also nigh-on-impossible for her to send her kids to university. The cost is just too high: 1,000 pesos just to get to Manila, 1,500 pesos a month for food and accommodation, 500 for transport... The list goes on. She doesn't actually know what the fees are, she just knows that they are beyond her. The fees are - by the way - about 40,000 pesos ($US 769) for two semesters.
Vivinia is the proud mother of four children: Arnold Bunce Jr , Kiara Shien, Zaira Laine and Andrey aged five, nine, thirteen and fourteen respectively. She is married to Arnold Bunce. Arnold normally drives a tricycle to earn a living, but is currently working for better wages in construction in the neadby town of St. Agustin.
Vivinia earns extra money for the family by making and selling sleeping mats for 200 pesos ($US 3.86). Each mat takes her between twenty-four and thirty hours.
Vivinia also works as a BHW (Barangay [village] Health Worker). The work is essentially voluntary, but she does receive a small stipend every month of 200 pesos ($US 3.86). She assists and local midwife with tasks such as immunizations, blood pressures checks, de-worming, vitamin supplements and so on. She is also very diligent in getting pregnant women to do their regular prenatal checks.
Vivinia - like so many of the people living in Sugod - was caught up in Typhoon Frank. When Frank was at his worst, Vivinia was very worried that her home -which enjoys spectacular views of the harbour - would be destroyed and that she would have nowhere to put her kids. She now has a strong phobia of bad weather and is petrified whenever the storms come as they so often do in the Philippines.
Her greatest wish - as you might have guessed - is for her children to finish their education.
She is very grateful to all the help the Meaningful Shop is giving her.