CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, July 10 (PNA) — A coffee growers cooperative in Bataan is the latest beneficiary of the convergence livelihood program of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
The Tala Orani Multi-Purpose Cooperative (TAMCO) based in Barangay Sinagtala, Orani, Bataan has received livelihood assistance amounting to P110,000 that will give benefit to its 33 officials and members.
DOLE regional director Ana C. Dione said the move is one of the government’s convergence strategies with the aim to empower more marginalized individuals or groups in Central Luzon.
DOLE Bataan Field Office head Leilani Reynoso said the livelihood assistance, which is also seen to benefit some 100 individuals within the community, will be used for the cooperative’s coffee nursery and packaging of roasted ground coffee project.
Aside from DOLE and DOST, other partner agencies which include the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), will be providing their counterpart assistance in the form of skills training, entrepreneurship development training, and other capability-building activities.
The DOLE official urged cooperative members to manage their project well.
The DOLE-DOST convergence program was created to provide sustainable livelihood and employment opportunities to the poor, vulnerable and marginalized workers, workers displaced by natural and man-made calamities, and returning/displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their families. (PNA)