BACOLOD CITY – Some 25 residents of Barangay Banago here have been chosen as beneficiaries of the Project Banago Alternative and Sustainable Livelihood Initiatives for Development (BASLID) under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
Project BASLID aims to provide skills training and other livelihood interventions to the beneficiaries, who belong to the marginalized and vulnerable sector in the village.
On Wednesday, the trainees attended the third day of the Cookery National Certificate or NC II training at the TESDA Regional Training Center in Talisay City.
Romelia Nuezca, acting provincial director of TESDA-Negros Occidental, said the project is being funded under the agency’s Training for Work Scholarship Program.
Trainees avail of free training cost, free assessment, internet allowance, one-year accident insurance, health and personal protective equipment allowance, and training support fund of PHP160 per day.
Based on the list of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Banago is the lone insurgency-cleared village in this city included in the Support to Barangay Development Program (BDP) of the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
It has been allocated an assistance of PHP20 million under the BDP, a hallmark program of the NTF-ELCAC with the end goal of bringing development to former conflict-prone communities.
The assistance includes a one-kilometer farm-to-market road worth PHP12 million; classrooms, PHP3 million; water and sanitation systems, PHP2 million; health station, PHP1.5 million; and livelihood projects, PHP1.5 million.
Village chief Ricky Mijares acknowledged the TESDA and its partner-agencies for being the “channel of blessings” for Barangay Banago.
“The status of Banago as an insurgency-cleared barangay has opened many opportunities for our residents,” he said.
As support to the program, Mijares said the barangay is providing a service vehicle to the beneficiaries for the duration of the training.
For the Project BASLID implementation, the TESDA, which heads the Poverty Reduction Livelihood and Employment Cluster of the NTF-ELCAC, has partnered with the DILG, Philippine National Police, Philippine Information Agency, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Labor and Employment, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and the city government. (PNA)
