SMC OPENS LIVELIHOOD CENTER, COOP IN BULAKAN
San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has established a livelihood center and consumers’ cooperative in Bulakan, Bulacan, to ensure “sustainable livelihood” for nearly 500 families, as it prepares the future site of “aerocity” New Manila International Airport (NMIA).
Through the San Miguel Aerocity Inc. (SMAI) Livelihood Center, Bulakan citizens who used to reside at the NMIA project site can avail of training support and immediately apply the skills to earn a stable income for their families at the livelihood center located in Barangay San Nicolas, Bulakan.
“Our continuing efforts to engage residents and local officials in Bulakan has allowed us to finetune our existing livelihood restoration programs, as well as come up with new initiatives that will adapt to their needs,” SMC president and
CEO Ramon Ang said.
“With these, we can better ensure that the economic growth that the NMIA will bring in the coming years, will be inclusive and will be felt by Bulacan residents and the rest of the country,” he added.
SMAI Livelihood Center is a partnership among SMAI, the Bulacan provincial office of the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Gintong Aral Foundation.
The launch of the SMAI Livelihood Center, led by SMAI project lead Cecile Ang and Bulakan Mayor Vergel Meneses, also coincided with the formal creation of the Livelihood sa Pag-unlad (Lipad) consumer cooperative.
Through the Lipad consumer cooperative, SMAI, in partnership with Gintong Aral, aims to empower residents through training and knowledge transfer on the inner workings of a cooperative to harness the strength of collective membership and ensure a stronger enterprise with better profitability.
With assistance from Gintong Aral, residents organized themselves into a consumer cooperative to run the facility, which will feature a coffee shop, a spa, a sewing room and several training areas to help equip other members of the community.
“It is not enough that we provide skills and help them develop their entrepreneurial mindset. By pooling their resources together through a cooperative setup, each member claims a stake in their collective success,” Ang said.