DAVAO CITY – Five thousand women gathered here to show women empowerment and engaging themselves to entrepreneurship through the help of the Sari-Sari Store Training Access to Resources or STAR program of Coca-Cola Philippines.
The women from different provinces and cities all over the region graduated from the company’s STAR program. Each entered the school through a scholarship.
Lawyer Adel Tamano, Vice President for Public Affairs of Coca-Cola Philippines, said: “We are here in Davao to celebrate women’s month and we have these 5,000 women who graduated from STAR, we encourage some of them to be entrepreneur because we believe that if you invest in women communities become stronger, better and always good for business.”
Tamano said the program teaches women to become a better entrepreneur, and widens the opportunity for them by giving access to resources that they can use to start their small businesses.
“STAR is a complete program, all hindrances were overtaken through our help and the determination of the women as well,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mayor Sara Duterte, through a statement read by City Administrator lawyer Zuleika Lopez, thanked Coca-Cola management for empowering women not just in Davao but in the entire region.
“You women are capable of engineering change not only in your families but also in the community,” Duterte said.
Per Lopez, Coca-Cola’s STAR program is anchored through the 10-point priority agenda of Duterte, which is poverty alleviation by empowering women through entrepreneurial spirit.
For this year, Coca-Cola aims to empower 40,000 women, including several sectors in the community, to give them opportunity to start their own business.
Coca-Cola is targeting to empower 200,000 Filipino women micro-entrepreneurs by the year 2020 through the Coca-Cola 5by20 STAR program that started in 2011.
Since it was launched, the program now has 390 accredited facilitators teaching and training women retailers to become better entrepreneurs, the STAR program is also being implemented in over 47 locations in the entire country.