Northern Mindanao – The Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) under the governance of Department of Social Welfare and Development Region 10 is ongoing and being implemented in provinces such as Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental. It is a community-based capacity-building program that seeks to improve the partcipants’ socio-economic status, enhance their access to basic social services, and improve their standard of living. The program also aims to prepare the participants for locally available jobs, to facilitate opportunities for micro-enterprise development, to expand socio-economic benefits of the Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries, and link them to support services and programs provided by the partner groups. SLP also aims to promote a participatory and community-based approach in enterprise development, as well as to expand and update the portfolio of public- and private-sector partners.
This program is in partnership with the Skills Mastery Institute (SMI), a technical-vocational school based in Cagayan de Oro City that provides skills trainings for the participants, who are ages 18-40 years old and are residents of the said provinces. These trainings and workshops go right to the doorsteps of these participants, even in the farthest municipalities and baranggays. SMI also provides local and international employment for them, thus improving their income, which will usher them toward self-reliance and self-sufficiency.
Skills such as beauty care, cookery, plumbing, carpentry, massage therapy, food processing, and welding are taught by SMI. They are all 100% TESDA-certified.
As part of their other objectives, SMI’s Skills-On-Wheels (SOW) is also included in the program. The training institute also wants to provide lifelong learning that will help the participants gain easy access to employment and create sustainable livelihood activities.
The program started in December 2014 and will end in April this year.
[Text by Rain Escano]
