Nine months after the Marawi City siege, 2,615 internally displaced persons have completed skills training initiated by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in collaboration with Tesda and other partner institutions.
The skills learned would help displaced Marawi residents start a new livelihood.
Under the DWSD’s Sustainable Livelihood Program, skills learned include painting, carpentry, driving, welding, computer servicing, cooking, dressmaking, haircutting, electrical installation and maintenance, masonry, pipe making and welding.
SLP is a community-based capacity building program that aims to improve the socio-economic condition of poor Filipinos by facilitating opportunities for development and management of resources viable for micro-enterprises and employment facilitation.
“We are grateful for the opportunities given to us. The new skills we learned can help us to find new jobs,” said Cairodeng Carim, one of the graduates.
DSWD also provided P5,000 pre-employment assistance fund to each graduate. The trainees also received toolkits from Tesda to help them start new means of livelihood.
“As of February 21, families affected by the siege have already received a total of P764,585,081.57 worth of relief assistance from combined resources of the DSWD, DSWD-ARMM, ARMM-HEART, LGUs and various non-government organizations (NGOs),” the DSWD website reported.
About 64 evacuation centers are still open in 17 municipalities in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur.
