Amazing Women: Ms. Cielo Bueno

The Dream Lives On

Ms. Cielo Bueno – Founder/Prime Mover Kaakbay Entre-Worker Cooperative

16 years ago, Ms. Cielo and 15 women dreamed to put up a company which they themselves will own. They joined hands and formed a pioneering organization-model called Entrepreneur-Worker Cooperative where each member’s work input/output is her stake in the cooperative. Unlike a savings and loan cooperative, this cooperative involved no cash outlay; only dedication and commitment to work were needed.

The primary objective of the cooperative was to provide employment and social security for its members and their families and to ensure economic sustainability of the business enterprise. These, Kaakbay, has achieved and many times, has helped a network of community-based women organizations during periods when demand for Kaakbay's products are high. Ms. Cielo is especially happy to say that many of the children of members have become professionals and have graduated from college and high school. The members enjoy benefits such as membership in Medicare and SSS and profit sharing.

Why Kaakbay? Ms. Cielo explains that the cooperative is there to help each other and other women be economically sufficient. To this end, Kaakbay means – somebody one walks with, a companion, a partner, someone one can trust to accompany you “sa hirap at ginhawa”. To date, there are 50 co-worker/co-owner members who operate the cooperative which has expanded its market operation in Metro Manila and to adjoining cities and provinces.

Kaakbay is a unique business entity as only members have “stocks and stock options”, meaning, the workers are also the owners. It is a social enterprise that empowers marginalized groups (especially women groups). It manufactures filing-systems products (arch-file binders, flexi-fillers, 3-ring binders) thus responding to the filing and organizing needs and requirements of mainstream business. It also provides assessment and solution-options for cost effective, space saving management of paper documents.

“I am proud to say that the cooperative has been successfully replicated in Tabaco City, Albay (Kaakbay San Lorenzo EWC) and in Calamba City, Laguna (Kaakbay Calabarzon EWC). We have tried to replicate the cooperative in other areas but I guess, they are not yet ready. In time, we will revive these dormant cooperatives and make them responsive to the needs of women in the area where they are located.

“Why women? Because women are the ones keeping the family together and, making these women economically self-sufficient will ensure that the family remains intact and the children are cared for. To this end, Gifts and Graces assists us by carrying our products to where they are better exposed and better known to the buying public. If more people buy our products, this cooperative of women will endure”.