EDUCATION. Department of Science and Technology Regional Director Rowen Gelonga speaks before recipients of the Holistic Opportunities and People's Empowerment (HOPE) project of the Community Empowerment Through Science and Technology (CEST) program during the launching at the San Jose de Buenavista District Jail in San Jose de Buenavista, Antique on Wednesday (Jan. 31, 2024). Gelonga said that through the HOPE project, persons deprived of liberty at the BJMP will have an opportunity to finish college. (PNA photo by Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – An initial 25 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Antique have the opportunity to finish college even behind bars under the “Holistic Opportunities and People’s Empowerment” (HOPE) project of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
HOPE is one of the five components of the Community Empowerment Through Science and Technology (CEST) program of the DOST aimed at creating human resource development by providing an opportunity for the PDLs to continue their college education through blended learning in partnership with the University of Antique (UA).
“The DOST has allocated PHP2.5 million for the implementation of the CEST project,” DOST Regional Director Rowen Gelonga said in his message during the project launching on Wednesday.
UA will offer a Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship for those at the college level or who have finished Senior High School starting in August this year.
“PDLs could continue their schooling at the UA campus whenever the time comes that they would be released from the BJMP already,” UA President Dr. Pablo Crespo Jr. said.
The university also intends to offer baking, air-conditioning, and electrical installation and maintenance for those lacking credentials to proceed to college.
Another component of the CEST project is livelihood or economic enterprise development, where the PDLs taking short courses like baking will learn about marketing with the help of university students to earn and have money to send to their families.
DOST will provide filter for potable water at the BJMP and a remote monitoring medical device they could use to measure their vital signs under the health and nutrition component, solid waste management for the environmental protection and conservation component, and information board and other materials under the disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation component.
BJMP Regional Director Jail Chief Supt. Simeon Dolojo Jr., San Jose de Buenavista Mayor Elmer Untaran, Antique Rep. Antonio Agapito Legarda, Gelonga, and Crespo signed a memorandum of agreement to seal the project. (PNA)
