Pantawid Pamilya vocational graduates find jobs abroad

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — At least 880 beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program are now set to work overseas after finishing vocational courses offered by the Skills Mastery Institute (SMI), a partner of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in implementing Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) in the Region.

According to SMI, out of the 880 beneficiaries, 444 of them have already passed their employers’ requirements and are currently waiting for their schedule to depart from the Philippines to work abroad.

The rest are also completing their requirements for overseas employment.

The Sustainable Livelihood Program is the national government’s assistance to poor households by enhancing their employability and productive capacity.

The main intervention strategy is to provide community-based trainings along employment and micro-enterprise development tracks.

The said Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries have completed vocational courses on household services, housekeeping, massage therapy, beauty care, cookery, food processing, food and beverage services, plumbing, shielded metal arc welding, and carpentry.

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is a human development program of the national government that invests in the health and education of poor households, particularly of children up to 18 years of age.

The beneficiaries of the program are those who are under the Listahanan (also known as the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction), a system that generates data of who and where the poor are in the Philippines.

The DSWD is continuously partnering with other private organizations that are willing to provide various services for the poor in Northern Mindanao.

Meanwhile, recovering drug dependents are currently part of the priorities of the DSWD in Northern Mindanao, as it has piloted the Strategies Towards Acceptance, Reintegration and Transformation (START).

In partnership with the Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers Committee of the Dangerous Drugs Board, the DSWD has piloted the START implementation here and in Iligan City in 2014, giving psychosocial services to rehabilitated drug-users and their families, and livelihood assistance and other support services to increase their economic capacities and develop their life skills.