Management and Staff – As mothers make Filipino homes, women make our kitchens and basecamps. There are over 30 managers and supervisors, housekeepers, cooks, foundation workers, and concierges that make our islands feel like home.
Massage – We started hiring women to give massages in our camps. Working as in-house and on-call masseuses allows them to make money for the family, sometimes more than their husbands. We have over 60 trained masseuses over 6 islands.
Virgin Coconut Oil – Virgin Coconut Oil is a healthy oil allowed to separate naturally after pressing fresh coconut meat or milk. No heat is used in the process, so the oil retains its high contents of vitamins, antioxidants, minerals and fatty acids. It takes 30 coconuts to produce 1.5 liters of coconut oil. We source our coconut oil from over 20 local women and their families.
Our soap and shampoo + body wash have no weird filler ingredients and we don’t skimp on the virgin coconut oil because we have a lot of it. We’ve trained 5 women and over 50 students in the making of these hand-crafted soaps and shampoos. The only ingredients are virgin coconut oil, essential oils of lemongrass, peppermint, and calamansi, coffee grounds, and gugo bark and guava leaves from forests surrounding the Tao Farm. Profits from these products go into the Association’s own projects, plenty of which have to do with reproductive health awareness.
Weaving – Some new skills we’re learning with women are sewing, weaving, and embroidering. We provide our seamstresses and embroiderers machines and materials so they can work from home. The beddings you sleep on in our basecamps and the Tao bags you get at your expeditions are the products of these new skills.