LA TRINIDAD, Benguet, April 19 (PIA)– The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority-Benguet is set to continue skills training on livelihood opportunities to uplift the life of communities in identified depressed areas.
TESDA as the lead in the Poverty Reduction, Livelihood and Employment Cluster in Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict through a whole-of-nation approach has lined up programs and projects in identified Geographically Isolated and Depressed Areas (GIDAs).
Provincial Director Elizabeth Manio, in the recent meeting of the Cordillera Regional PRLEC informed that a project tagged as “Kasanayan sa Kanayunan para sa Kabuhayan” or K3 Project will be launched in two depressed barangays, Ekip in Bokod and Poblacion in Kibungan.
The project promotes a combination of area-based skills and existing programs of TESDA to benefit 50 individuals. Manio said the project worth P1.8 million for both barangays will focus on organic production, masonry and vegetable processing depending on available products found in the area.
The beneficiaries after acquiring the necessary skills and assessment in organic agriculture will be having organic farms and gardens, poultry, pig pens to produce the products which they are expected to market in their own community
The convergence partners under the K3 Project are the provincial government, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Department of Public Works and Highways, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and the municipal and barangay local government units.
Manio also reported that Project SILAW which stands for Solar Installation among Locals to Advance their Welfare which is on its second year of implementation, will expand to other GIDAs in barangays Pudong in Kapangan, Tawangan in Kabayan and Poblacion in Kibungan.
SILAW is a community-based program that aims to provide sources of electricity to the identified local communities. The beneficiaries are taught how to install solar panels in their respective houses which will later become the source of their livelihood in the community.
Manio said initial undertakings for the project is the delivery of tool kits for the solar project training.
Skills trainings entail a face-to-face approach and with the increase of COVID-19 cases in the past weeks, trainings for both the K3 Project and Project SILAW will commence once the situation improves. **JDP/SCA-PIA-CAR, Benguet