Lighting Up Livelihoods: NCBA Fairview Enlightens Local Community on Candle Making
QUEZON CITY — National College of Business and Arts (NCBA) Fairview campus teaches its local community in the production of Scented Candles as part of an effort to uplift the livelihood of its adopted family.
The Business Administration Department with the Community Engagement and Sustainable Activities spearheaded another livelihood program for the adopted community participants from Samahan Ng Mga Magkakapitbahay ng Fairview (SAMAFA), the NCBA Fairview campus last March 28, 2025. It aimed at creating additional income-generating opportunities by teaching its SAMAFA community the production and selling of candle making.
Though it may seem weird that scented candles are the focal product, being more associated with luxurious lifestyles in other countries, the Philippines-especially the most cosmopolitan capital of the Metro Manila area-have a long history with scented candles, from the incense brought by Chinese traders to the more fragrance-based ones populating Filipino households in the long 19th century.
Scented candles are made with aromatic essential oils and create fragrances released when it is burned, casting a pleasant atmosphere in various spaces, homes, offices, and spas, among others. These candles can purify the air and eliminate unpleasant odors like those from fumes or general bad smells, making them almost a near-necessity among the hundreds of thousands of homes and families dwelling along Quezon City’s 12.4-kilometer artery, which is Commonwealth Avenue.
The NCBA initiative features not just participants learning how to produce scented candles but how to profit from their own labor and creation. The NCBA-CESA also donated materials and equipment for candle-making, along with bags for the participants, encouraging them to continue the endeavor of candle-making and making a small-business a reality.
Specifically, NCBA would like to achieve in its program that traditional skills and arts in candle making in its CESA program and adopted communities are continued in conjunction with modern methods and future development, focusing on practical skills teaching such as measuring, melting, and pouring, and an understanding of fragrance blending. This institution also sought to lay the ground for creating and selling scented candles for potential small business ventures and using calming scents during the process of making and in the use of the candles, which will help in relaxing and releasing tension.
NCBA has a long storied history with its local communities and has long seen that the flourishing of its local community is the flourishing of itself. NCBA is not interested in being THE diamond in the rough; rather, it is interested in being the diamond among the sea of golden livelihoods.
Also present from NCBA were the CESA Head, Mr. Jhul Rio, Liberal Arts Department Head, Zenaida Miranda, and Research Director Dr. Maricel Makinano, together with student volunteers from the Business Administration Department.
