Traditional weaving as a livelihood and cultural heritage in Mindanao

The Maranao Collectibles is a social enterprise owned and operated by Jardin and Salika Samad that aims to revive and promote langkit weaving as a livelihood intervention for all Maranao people (Mindanao). The couple, tagged as Internally Displaced Persons from Marawi City, started their operations in July 2017. At an evacuation center in Iligan City, it dawned upon them that the art of langkit weaving has long been suffering and slowly dying primarily because of the neglected cultural valuation of weaved products in the country. Driven to revive this dying tradition, they humbly started their social enterprise by building makeshift equipment made of bamboo pipes and scraps and teaching the other evacuees the art of langkit weaving. With an unwavering passion to help and give hope to the community, they setup a learning center and now aims to assist other Internally Displaced Persons weavers earn decent income and revitalise lost dignity while uplifting the value of the craft to help preserve and promote the cultural heritage and traditions of the Maranaos.
The Maranao Collectibles is among the winners of a social enterprise competition for Bangsamoro communities organised in December 2017. It received 100.000 peso seed funding and one-year mentoring from Bayan Academy. This competition was jointly funded by the European Union and the British Council through a project aiming at strengthening civil society participation in social enterprise education and development for decent work, job creation and small and medium enterprise development and implemented by the Balay Mindanaw Foundation, the Philippine Social Enterprise Network, the Foundation for a Sustainable Society and the Department of Trade and Industry of ARMM.