While feminism and women empowerment continue to grow, gender stereotypes like “babae lang” (“just a woman”) or “nanay lang” (“just a mother”) are common among Filipinos. Despite ranking 20th out of 148 countries in the 2025 World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Index report (GGGR), patriarchal ideals and traditional roles remain prevalent in Philippine society.
Our Social Mission
One common idea is when a Filipina woman becomes a mother, her dreams are for her family, husband, and children, and her identity is limited to a supporting role in the lives of her husband and children. In fact, when Happy Helpers began operations in 2015, our co-founders, Maan Sicam and Jo Endaya, were deeply saddened to hear a common sentiment: “Housewife lang ako”, “Nanay lang ako”, and “Ma’am, I’m too old, my dreams are for my children”.
But whoever said that if you dream for your husband and children you can no longer dream for yourself? Whoever said that women, mothers, are limited to child-rearing, supportive roles?
In the second episode of The Spark Project’s podcast, Why She Works, Maan shared: “The mission of Happy Helpers is for these mothers to see their value and see the better versions of themselves. So how do we do that? How do we make sure that they feel that self-worth? Because they are mothers. I am valuable because I am a woman, because I am a mother.”
How do we pursue our social mission to show these mothers their value because they are women and because they are mothers?
As a social enterprise cleaning company, we go beyond offering trusted and reliable cleaning services through meaningful work, skills training, and life coaching.
Meaningful Work
The 90+ Filipina mothers who make up our team of professional cleaners work on a part-time, on-call basis, maximum 5 hours a day, so they can earn additional income without having to sacrifice time spent with their families and loved ones. This is why when you book any of our home cleaning services like the flagship Deep Cleaning Service, Post Construction Cleaning Service, and Move In & Move Out Cleaning Service, a session lasts 5 hours.
Skills Training
We regularly hold quarterly training sessions to ensure that these mothers are up to date with the latest cleaning skills and equipment. For example, the Hyla® Upholstery Cleaning Service offers dry, steam, and shampoo options, so these mothers learn how to properly use the Hyla® machine to remove deep-seated dust, dirt, and allergens from home furnishings like mattresses, sofas, and carpets. In our recent skills training session, our professional cleaners learned how to clean Top Load Washing Machines for our newest cleaning service, the Washing Machine Cleaning Service.
Life Coaching
We hold life coaching sessions to nurture the holistic development of these mothers. For example, we held a yoga session to teach them stress management, relaxation, and breathing techniques. When they join Happy Helpers, they are given a personal bank account through which they are paid and are encouraged to participate in our ipon challenges (saving challenges). Some mothers have shared that through these ipon challenges they were able to save enough to buy household appliances, treat their families to meals out and vacations, or buy something they had been eyeing for themselves.
Eleven Years of Uplifting Filipina Women
Since January 2015, we are proud to share that we have worked with 250+ Filipina mothers, and 90+ Filipina mothers compose our current team of Happy Helpers. Beyond offering employment opportunities, we are dedicated to uplifting the lives of Filipina women from vulnerable communities while simultaneously lessening the load for busy Filipina mothers through our trusted and reliable cleaning services.
Written by Andie Miranda