LIVELIHOOD AID. Personnel of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Cebu Provincial Office pose with the 44 fire-affected microentrepreneurs and their families from the two villages in Lapu-lapu City, Cebu during the turnover of the Negosyo Kits worth PHP10,000 each on August 2, 2020. Through the DTI’s Pangkabuhayan sa Pagbangon at Ginhawa (PBG) Program, 38 microentrepreneurs from Barangay Gun-ob and six microentrepreneurs from Barangay Mactan received the Negosyo Kits in coupon form. (Photo courtesy of DTI-7)
CEBU CITY – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Department of Labor and Employment in the Visayas Regions 6, 7 and 8 have stepped up their livelihood and entrepreneurship development assistance through various seeding programs to assist those who are affected by fire and other calamities like the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
The DTI in Regions 6 and 7 bared in a virtual talk show of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Visayas (OPAV) hosted by Assistant Secretary Jonji Gonzales that the agency has launched the “Negosyo Serbisyo sa Barangay”, a livelihood seeding program that enabled small community business owners to receive Negosyo Kits worth PHP10,000 for each beneficiary.
Gonzales said during the launch of the livelihood seeding program in Region 6, there were 100 indigenous people (IP) that attended it.
Of this number, only 25 are engaged in small business and eight of them were chosen as beneficiaries of the Negosyo Kits for their business development capital.
For the Central Visayas Region, the DTI here has already distributed 60 livelihood kits to the beneficiaries of the livelihood seeding program and for August this year, 175 Negosyo kits are scheduled for distribution.
The DTI-Cebu Provincial Office has turned over Negosyo Kits worth PHP10,000 each to 59 fire-affected micro entrepreneurs and their families from the three barangays in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, Gonzales added.
All 59 beneficiaries also received food packs and face masks from the Office of Senator Christopher Lawrence Go.
All DTI-Negosyo Kits beneficiaries, through the Kabuhayan sa Pagbangon at Ginhawa Program, received these kits in coupon form that allowed them to avail of various merchandise items to restore and improve their businesses.
Meanwhile, the DOLE-6 has released its counterpart livelihood assistance to the families of the nine sugarcane farm workers who were killed at Hacienda Nene in Bulanon, Sagay City on October 20, 2018.
Their wives, siblings and children were given PHP137,000 worth of raw materials and goods to rebuild their lives.
Gonzales said DOLE-8 also turned over the mini-grocery store projects in Barangay 1 Commonwealth Rosario, Northern Samar amounting to PHP500,000 to benefit 50 members of the Kilusang Pagbabago Municipal Association (KPMA) whose families were victims of the Inopacan atrocities.
They received PHP3.49 million in livelihood grants. (PNA/Minerva Newman)
