Proving that no disaster can discourage them or weaken their determination to provide for their families, internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Marawi City staying in Lanao del Norte and Iligan City were able to successfully complete various skills training programs provided by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). They have now begun to prepare for employment with the help of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
A total of 2,615 IDPs staying in evacuation centers and home-based communities have finished TESDA’s Training for Work Scholarship Program – Massive Skills Training Program, which includes the provision of skills development training through technical vocational institutions offering various qualifications registered with the agency.
The IDP-graduates were recognized in a graduation ceremony held at the Iligan City National Highschool Gymnasium on January 7, 2018.
The ceremony, which carried the theme “Borantaw Ka Meranaw (Rise Up, Meranaw),” was organized by TESDA Region X and DSWD Field Office (FO) XII in cooperation with the agency’s partner institutions, the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Association of Iligan-Lanao del Norte, Inc. and the Mindanao State University-Maigo School of Arts and Trades.
The IDPs graduated from various skills training programs, including carpentry, driving, welding, computer servicing, dressmaking, haircutting, electrical installation and maintenance, plaster concrete masonry, and pipe making, and shield metal arc welding.
Pre-employment assistance
During the graduation ceremony, TESDA distributed toolkits, such as multi-testers, ovens, screwdrivers, and welding machines to the graduates to help them get started; while the DSWD, through its field office in the SOCCSKSARGEN Region, provided the graduates with a Pre-Employment Assistance Fund (PEAF) amounting to P5,000 each.
PEAF is a modality of the Department’s Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) that is anchored to its employment facilitation track. It is a grant given to SLP participants who need financial assistance in acquiring pre-employment requirements, such as birth certificate, passport, school diploma, medical or physical examination, barangay and NBI clearances, and TIN.
The grant may also be used not only to cover travel expenses, including fare and food, in securing the requirements mentioned, but also transportation expenses of going to and from the workplace.
“I believe that with our convergence efforts with TESDA and with our utmost purpose to serve, our IDPs in Marawi will be given the best intervention through our sustainable livelihood program,” DSWD FO XII Regional Director Bai Zorahayda T. Taha said in the speech she made during the ceremony.
Dir. Taha encouraged the graduates to work hard and to use the new skills that they have acquired for the betterment of their lives.
Other than the PEAF, FO XII is also processing the validation of program participants who will receive a seed capital fund amounting to P10,000, which can be used to start micro-enterprises.
DSWD Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Emmanuel A. Leyco has earlier emphasized the importance of providing the displaced residents of Marawi with sources of livelihood so they can regain their dignity and self-worth.
“We have adjusted our programs, including the sustainable livelihood program, to accommodate the needs of the displaced people of Marawi. We have partnered with other government agencies to provide the IDPs with livelihood activities that they themselves can implement and carry out. Through these, we can help them recover and eventually stand on their own feet and rise again,” OIC Leyco explained. #
