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‘Barter for a cause’ benefits Laoag preschoolers

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BARTER FOR A CAUSE. Children in Barangay Lagui-Sail, Laoag City receive a learning kit courtesy of A&A Foundation and the Ilocos Norte 1st Provincial Mobile Force Company. Some of the donated school supplies were sourced through an online barter system where a kilo of calamansi is exchanged with a writing pad, pencil or crayons. (Lei Adriano)

By Leilanie G. Adriano (Staff Reporter)

LAOAG CITY–At least 50 incoming Day-Care pupils at Barangay Lagui-Sail, this city are beneficiaries of a locally organized “barter for a cause” program, which is becoming a trend online, at least in the province of Ilocos Norte.

On July 1, 2020, four-year old Ysabel Pastor from Sitio West of the said barangay, received her very first eight-color crayons along with pencils, writing pads, sharpener, eraser and a pack of multivitamin syrup from a group of Ilocos Norte cops spearheading the gift-giving activity. Ysabel is among the incoming Day-Care pupils of Barangay 54-A Lagui-Sail that benefited in the revival of a century-old barter system now being made popular by some Ilocanos here in digital format.

Instead of watching his calamansi fruits to just rot under the trees due to limited buyers and oversupply, P/Senior Master Sgt. Noel Abad, who is also a farmer by heart at Barangay Pila, this city, chose to offer his calamansi fruits in exchange for f school supplies of Day Care pupils.

He then joined a private online group dubbed as “Maru Ilocos Barter”, a place where over a thousand members offer his or her product or service in exchange for something—except for cash—for every successful deal.

After posting the mechanics in the group which states: To barter one kilogram of calamansi for five writing pads for Grade 1, or six pieces pencil or four pieces of eight-color crayons, some of the members immediately approved the deal and agreed to meet at a given place and time to exchange items.

Young entrepreneur Christine Joy Salvador, owner of Good Vibes Cafe and administrator of Maru Ilocos Barter said it fills her heart with joy every time a group member shares his or her experience after making a successful deal.

To make it easy and convenient for every maruista (local term for a member of Maru Ilocos Barter) to exchange items, Ms. Salvador is offering her shop located at the back of the provincial Capitol as a drop-in and drop-off point for the members who made a deal. Her cafe has yet to offer dine-in as the space is limited to one or two groups only.

But instead of closing her shop during the COVID-19 pandemic, she made it a point to make her opening more responsive to the change of time.

“One of our corners has turned into a maru corner and it is happiness seeing them,” said Ms. Salvador as she posted a photo of plants, fruits and vegetables, freshly baked goodies and other products being delivered by maruista at no cost.

One particular deal that generated the most positive response is the calamansi tradeoff with school supplies as some members gave more than the expected items, some even just donated supplies even without a tradeoff.

“It fills our hearts with joy. Amidst crisis, kindness and generosity reign,” said Salvador as she shared one act of kindness from a young mom from Burgos town, approximately an hour drive from Laoag City who made an effort to exchange deal for a three-kilo calamansi with school supplies on her way back home at night,” she noted.

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