Inquirer.net:
“It was a blessing in disguise.”
This was how Gemma Amodia, a 43-year-old mother of four, described being terminated from her 13-year-old job at a Mactan export processing zone firm.
“If I had not lost my job at Fairchild (Semiconductors), I would not have this.”
Amodia operates a Aqua Ghem water refilling station at M.H. Del Pilar Street, barangay Gun-ob, Lapu-Lapu City.
The outlet earns at least P2,000 daily. A hired helper and her husband, Reynaldo, deliver 5-gallon containers of mineral water to clients as far as Mandaue City and Marigondon in Lapu-Lapu City.
Although her business is doing well it was not always that way.
Amodia remembered feeling helpless after losing her Mepz job and how prayer, perseverance and trust in God brought her to where she is now.
She was terminated in March 2000 as a production operator and worried about her family’s future.
“I was out of a job and my husband Reynaldo and I have four children to raise. I cried almost daily for three months,” said Amodia.
To make ends meet, they transferred their two children from private school to a public school.
Amodia worried that the money would run out it they didn’t invest in a business that would earn income.
Amid all these problems, she said she never stopped praying.
In June that year, her prayers were answered. A friend brought her to a kumare in barangay Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City, where she was introduced to direct selling.
“I distributed Natasha (ready to wear) products then,” said Amodia. “I invested P40,000 and hired dealers, who would sell the products to their clients at a term.”
Photo by John Rees