The community of women entrepreneurs, Madiskarte Moms PH (MMPH) is bringing back Gawad Madiskarte to honor outstanding mompreneurs with over P1 million worth of prizes including  ASUS laptops,  PLDT Home broadband connection, one-year Canva Pro subscriptions, cash, and mentorship.

The awards showcase the success stories of mompreneurs who have subverted conventional expectations to embrace their entrepreneurial spirit. Their businesses are innovative, creative, and run by very hardworking women who do double duty as the glue that holds the family together, run their household and their business.

Major categories for this year’s Gawad Madiskarte include Diskarteng Angat (Fastest-Growing Business), Diskarteng Digital (Best Multi-Channel Business) and Diskarteng May Puso (Best Social Enterprise). Two major winners per category will be chosen from the Startup Division and Scale Up Division. The former are home or online businesses that recently started and show great potential while the latter are businesses that have been running for at least 13 months and are registered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) or the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

Special awards will also be given to three deserving finalists. These awards are Diskarteng Malikhain (Most Creative Business Branding), Diskarteng Pasulong (Most Innovative Product) and Diskarteng Home Biz (Mompreneurs’ Choice Award).

Chosen by industry luminaries

The judges for this year’s Gawad Madiskarte come from the business, telco, communications and creative industries. Maxine Loyola, AVP & Head of PLDT Home Marketing Public Relations, Influencer Marketing and Brand Advocacies, has launched the biggest marketing campaigns for Philippine Internet—from dial-up to prepaid internet cards, DSL and finally the Fiber broadband we enjoy today.

Joining her are entrepreneurs Jorge Wieneke and Jenny Wieneke, who are Mr. and Mrs. Negosyo and PLDT Home Biz ambassadors. Jorge is a GoNegosyo Angelpreneur who serves as consultant to aspiring and starting entrepreneurs all over the country; he also created Kalye Negosyo, a mentoring program for budding entrepreneurs. Jenny is an advertising expert with over 30 years of experience building brands and a PCE-GoNegosyo mentor since 2015. Entrepreneur Janine Khazaiealiabady, owner of Massage MNL, started her career at a fast food and moved to marketing and online commerce before founding Massage MNL five years ago.

From the creative and marketing industries, the judges are Donna Nievera-Conda, Maisie Littaua, and Marjorie Barretto.

Nievera-Conda leads the integrated marketing communications agency Stratworks as President and co-CEO, and ID8, a digital publishing agency.

Littaua is the Head of Growth for Canva Philippines, a free online visual communication and collaboration platform launched in 2013. Today, Canva has grown to over 135 million monthly active users across 190 countries, with more than 200 designs created per second.

Barretto, actress and entrepreneur, launched her own online home and clothing brand Everything Avery during the pandemic, and opened her stunning River Garden Rest House for private rentals—a true-blue madiskarte mom.

Winners of this year’s Gawad Madiskarte will receive a trophy created by sculptor Ram Mallari, who works with discarded metal and forms them into provocative works of art in the steampunk style.

Mallari grew up in an impoverished district of Manila with his mother, whom he describes as “madiskarte,” and dedicates his Gawad Madiskarte design to all mompreneurs and his own mother.

Celebrating three years of supporting Filipino mompreneurs

Gawad Madiskarte also ushers in the third year of Madiskarte Moms PH as it welcomes more members to its current 162,000-strong base. An online community, MMPH manages a Facebook group and  YouTube channel that give valuable insights into finding business opportunities for all moms, whether they are stay-at-home or have day jobs and are looking for a side hustle to augment the family income.

MMPH’s online platforms also showcase the success stories of their members and how they can take advantage of social media to market and sell their products. But beyond digital interactions, MMPH is fostering economic growth in communities by nurturing a generation of mompreneurs who contribute to everyone’s success.

Mompreneurs are doers, a force for positive change and empowerment. Two of the most heartfelt messages from their stories is that opportunities are everywhere and that inspiration can come from one’s experience.

Their stories are all different and the women take different paths to get their businesses off the ground and scale up. But one thing that threads these experiences together is an openness to learn and to be part of a community that celebrates all their efforts and ideas.

“Our small business has become our primary source of income,” one mom said. “With it, we are able to pay our bills every month and even have some savings.”

We all can learn lessons from these inspiring moms, and Gawad Madiskarte urges us to celebrate them all.

Know more about Gawad Madiskarte and the inspiring moms of Madiskarte Moms PH by visiting pldthome.info/GawadMadiskarteAwards2023.

This article is a press release. Minor edits have been made by the 8List.ph editorial team.