50 women trained on 'Kwarta sa Basura' project
By Hazel F. Gloria
CEBU CITY, Oct 2 (PIA) -- Fifty women in the city were trained in the “Kwarta sa Basura” project.
This is a new livelihood of by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-7) in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the local social welfare office of Cebu City.
Said women are also the beneficiaries of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program from the city’s five lowland barangays, namely, Mambaling, Inayawan, Sawang Calero, Duljo-Fatima, and Kalunasan.
The office of DSWD-7 identified groups of 10 women each from said barangays to participate and learn the new craft as part of their Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP).
They were introduced to a new environment-friendly livelihood project that makes placemats, bags, wallets, vases, toys and other ladies accessories from old newspapers, magazines, tetra packs, old phone directories, and other materials out of salvaged materials/waste and recyclable items.
On the training, DENR Specialist Esmeralda Casino discussed the impacts of climate change and global warming.
Meanwhile, Barangay Captain Maynard Salinguhay of Barangay Luz in Cebu City also shared their village’s best practice on Solid Waste Management program which has made them known as champions in Solid Waste Management.
SLP is one of government’s effective program proven to have helped alleviate and fight poverty. A seed capital of P125,000 to P150,000 were released to a group (composed of 25 to 30 members) composed of women and special groups like persons with disabilities (PWDs) for small-scale existing business enterprise such as sari-sari or rolling stores, farming, livestock raising, fishing, food processing, dress making and shell craft and fish vending payable in two years without collateral and free of interest.
The former Self Employment Assistance-Kaunlaran (SEA-K) now called Sustainable Livelihood Program of the DSWD has been acknowledged and directly felt not only by thousands of its beneficiaries but also by the different Local Government Units, Non-Government Organizations and other government agencies as an effective poverty alleviation program of the government for more than a decade.
This loan grant is one of the major thrust program of DSWD in uplifting the socio-economic condition among the disadvantaged groups.(RMN/HFG-PIA7, DSWD7)