Solo parents receive funding from DSWD, start candle-making business
MANILA, Jan. 10 (PNA) -- Some 25 solo parents from the town of Concepcion in Iloilo province can now provide for their families’ needs after benefiting from the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP).
The beneficiaries are now producing candles, which they supply to the Immaculate Concepcion Parish Church in the same town.
Under the DSWD’s livelihood program, the women were trained on candle-making as well as in business management, sales and marketing. After the training, they formed the Candle Maker’s Association of Concepcion (CMAC) and started their business with a funding of PHP268,000 from the DSWD.
“Solo parent-headed families are oftentimes the most in need of our assistance, especially in their livelihood. We must assist them to enable them to support their loved ones,†Social Welfare Judy Taguiwalo said.
One of the beneficiaries, 42-year-old Rosa Abebenir, said business is doing good. “We have regular buyers now,†she said happily.
Currently, the women have a production center in the municipality. Aside from supplying the candles to the parish church, they also display their products at the Concepcion Kabuhayan Enterprise, and sell them in nearby towns during fiestas and special occasions.
“As a community-based capacity building program, the SLP seeks to increase the economic opportunities of Filipinos through the Community-Driven Enterprise Development Approach. We want the SLP to equip poor Filipinos so they can actively contribute to production and labor markets by looking at available resources and accessible markets,†Taguiwalo said.
The SLP offers two tracks for Filipinos in the program: micro-enterprise development, which supports micro enterprises to become organizationally and economically viable; and employment facilitation, which assists Filipinos to access appropriate employment opportunities.
The department has provided livelihood assistance to 1,556,509 families from 2011 to 2016, with 1,219,725 assisted through microenterprise development and 336,784 through employment facilitation.
The SLP has four key modalities. First is the technical-vocational skills training, where the SLP provides capacity building to equip its partner-participants with the appropriate skills for increased employability or for better management of their micro-enterprises.
Second is the pre-employment assistance fund, where the SLP assists participants in accessing employment opportunities with guaranteed employers by providing financial assistance to enable them to get the necessary job application requirements promptly.
The third is cash for building livelihood assets, where the SLP provides short-term employment to partner-participants for the development, rebuilding, and/or protection of physical and natural assets, which may be used by the participants and their community for profitable and sustainable livelihood projects.
The fourth is seed capital fund, where the SLP provides a capacity-building grant for the micro-enterprise development of its partner-participants so they can set up a credit and savings facility and/or manage an individual or group enterprise.
Taguiwalo said that although millions have already benefited from the SLP, the department acknowledges that many more poor families need assistance.
“The department is doing its best to respond to provide the appropriate services to the poor. Providing the needy with means to earn and eventually enabling them to stand on their own two feet is a priority of the DSWD. This is the kind of genuine public service that we want to provide,†Taguiwalo said. (PNA)
CVL/DSWD-PR/LSJ
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