When Typhoon Odette destroyed his sari-sari store, Jun Reyes thought his days as a small business owner were over. Today, his mobile fruit cart serves three barangays and supports two other families.

The early morning hustle in Taguig tells a thousand stories of Filipino resilience. As the city slowly wakes up, vendors like Jun Reyes are already setting up their mobile stalls, arranging fresh produce, and preparing for another day of honest work. But Jun’s story isn’t just about entrepreneurship—it’s about recovery, community support, and the power of getting back up after disaster strikes.

“Before the typhoon, I had a small store attached to our house,” Jun explains while carefully arranging mangoes and bananas on his cart. “Fifteen years I built that business, peso by peso. Then in one night, everything was gone.”

Jun is one of 200 small entrepreneurs who’ve received support through CJF Philippines’ “Kabuhayan Recovery” program—an initiative that goes beyond traditional disaster relief to help Filipino families rebuild their livelihoods with greater resilience and sustainability.

Beyond Relief: Building Back Better

Traditional disaster response often focuses on immediate needs: food, water, shelter, medical care. These are crucial, but they don’t address what happens after the cameras leave and the emergency funds run out. How do families who’ve lost their primary source of income rebuild their lives?

“We learned that giving someone a thousand pesos after a disaster helps for a week,” says Roberto Santos, CJF Philippines’ Livelihood Recovery Coordinator. “But teaching them to build a disaster-resistant business helps for a lifetime.”

The Kabuhayan Recovery program takes a different approach. Instead of simple cash transfers, it provides business training, startup capital, and ongoing mentorship to help families create income streams that can better withstand future disasters.

Jun’s mobile fruit cart is a perfect example. After losing his fixed sari-sari store, he initially thought about rebuilding in the same location. But through the CJF program, he learned about the advantages of mobile businesses—they can’t be destroyed by flooding, they can move to where customers are, and they require less capital to restart after setbacks.

The Mobile Revolution: Adapting to New Realities

The COVID-19 pandemic and recent typhoons have accelerated a trend across the Philippines: the rise of mobile businesses. From food carts to mobile repair services, Filipino entrepreneurs are discovering that flexibility can be a powerful form of resilience.

“My store was tied to one location,” Jun reflects. “If that area flooded or had problems, I had no customers. Now I can follow the market. Construction workers in the morning, office workers at lunch, families in the evening. My business moves with the community’s needs.”

The program doesn’t just provide carts and initial inventory. Participants learn essential business skills: how to calculate profit margins, manage inventory, handle seasonal fluctuations, and most importantly, how to save money for future emergencies.

Maria Gonzales, who started a mobile cellphone loading and repair service after her electronics shop was destroyed, emphasizes the importance of the financial literacy component. “I thought I understood business because I ran a store for ten years. But I was living day to day, with no emergency fund. Now I know the difference between revenue and profit, and I save 20% of my earnings every month.”

Community Networks: Strength in Numbers

One of the most powerful aspects of the program is how it creates networks among participants. Rather than competing against each other, mobile entrepreneurs often collaborate, sharing information about profitable locations, pooling resources for bulk purchases, and covering for each other during personal emergencies.

Jun’s fruit cart is part of an informal network of five mobile vendors who coordinate their schedules to avoid oversaturating any single area. When one vendor needs to take time off for family reasons, others help maintain their customer relationships.

“We learned that cooperation is better than competition,” explains Lisa Cruz, who operates a mobile snack cart. “If Jun sells fruits on Monday morning in Barangay San Jose, I’ll sell merienda there on Monday afternoon. We’re not taking customers from each other—we’re serving the same community throughout the day.”

This network approach has proven especially valuable during the recent economic challenges. When inflation made it difficult for individual vendors to purchase inventory, the group began buying in bulk, reducing their costs and increasing their profit margins.

Beyond Business: Building Community Resilience

The mobile entrepreneurs supported by CJF Philippines aren’t just rebuilding their own lives—they’re strengthening their communities’ ability to recover from future disasters. Their businesses provide essential services in areas that larger companies might not reach, and their success creates employment opportunities for others.

Jun now employs his nephew part-time and has helped two other families start their own mobile businesses using the knowledge he gained from the program. His cart provides fresh produce to neighborhoods where grocery stores are scarce, and he offers credit to regular customers who face temporary financial difficulties.

“When you’ve been through disaster yourself, you understand what others are going through,” Jun says. “Sometimes I let people pay tomorrow for food they need today. We have to help each other.”

Measuring Success: More Than Just Numbers

Since launching in 2022, the Kabuhayan Recovery program has helped establish over 200 small businesses across Metro Manila and surrounding provinces. But the program’s impact extends beyond economic indicators.

Program graduates report higher levels of confidence, stronger social networks, and greater preparedness for future emergencies. Many have become informal leaders in their communities, sharing business knowledge and disaster preparedness strategies with neighbors.

Jun’s success story is particularly impressive. His mobile fruit business now generates 40% more income than his original store, and he’s saved enough money to purchase a motorcycle that expands his delivery range. More importantly, he’s developed the skills and mindset to adapt when circumstances change.

“The next time a typhoon comes, I won’t lose everything,” he says with quiet confidence. “I know how to start again, and I know I’m not alone.”

Looking Forward: Scaling Up Success

CJF Philippines plans to expand the Kabuhayan Recovery program to reach 500 entrepreneurs across 25 cities by the end of 2025. The organization is also developing partnerships with local governments to integrate mobile businesses into official disaster recovery plans.

The program’s success has attracted attention from other NGOs and government agencies interested in replicating the model. Jun and other graduates now regularly speak at conferences and training sessions, sharing their experiences with new cohorts of aspiring entrepreneurs.

As the sun sets over Taguig, Jun packs up his cart after another successful day. His story represents thousands of Filipino families who’ve learned that disaster doesn’t have to mean defeat—sometimes it can mean the beginning of something better.

The road to recovery isn’t always smooth, but for Jun and his fellow entrepreneurs, it’s a journey they’re taking together, one sale at a time, one day at a time, building not just businesses but stronger communities along the way.

Interested in supporting livelihood recovery for Filipino families? Learn more about CJF Philippines’ Kabuhayan Recovery program at courtneyjordanfoundation.org/ph/livelihood-programs or discover how you can help small entrepreneurs rebuild stronger at #KabuhayanRecovery.