MANILA, (PNA) — The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) started recently livelihood training to the evacuees who are now temporarily seeking shelter in centers due to the fighting between government troops and loyalists of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chairman Nur Misuari in Zamboanga City.
The TESDA and DSWD skills training for evacuees aimed to give them a source of livelihood to help them earn while away from their homes and jobs after they were displaced by the conflict.
The skirmishes began on September 9 after the MNLF faction tried to declare an independent Bangsamoro Republik at the City Hall of Zamboanga.
The formal livelihood trainings were introduced in the evacuation centers last September 27.
TESDA and DSWD have put up a productivity center at the biggest evacuation center in Baliwasan Grandstand to house the trainees. A total of 200 women are estimated to benefit from the training programs.
Among the skills training programs offered were on novelty items making and mat weaving. The DSWD said it would buy all the training output of the trainees to give them a little income while in evacuation centers.
The other training programs being conducted are on massage therapy, reflexology, and haircutting.
Other training programs soon to be offered are meat processing, fish processing, vegetable processing and commercial cooking, according to the agreement signed during the meeting between DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano Soliman and TESDA-9 officer-in-charge regional director Lorenzo Macapili.
The new skills will not only provide the evacuees with possible source of livelihood, but will enable them to feed their families as well.
“The conflict has created a new enemy for the people—hunger and joblessness. The size of the crisis is overwhelming. But while government intervention is present, it should be something that will not only make them survive the day, but will help them get back on their feet as well,” TESDA director general Secretary Joel Villanueva said.
The training program has started to make a dent on the lives of the evacuees barely a week since it began.
Delia Sajiri, 45, came from Barangay Mariki. She sold fish and shrimp at the public market before the crisis broke out. As one of the first batch of beneficiaries, composed of 40 women, Sajiri was quick to learn how to make keychains, coin purses, and other novelty items using beads. Her produce were bought by DSWD, giving her a little income.
Al-Rasdi Radjuli, a grade seven student at the Arena Blanco National High School, also took the training and finished five pieces of key chains. Radjuli vowed to pass on the skills to the other siblings in the family.