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| Representatives of ten villages in the less affected area of Marawi City sign a document stipulating the formal handover of the International Organization for Migration of livelihood packages to them. (Claire R. Gigje/PIA-10/Lanao del Sur) |
MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur (PIA)--At least ten more barangays situated in the less affected area (LAA) here received on Thursday, July 28, livelihood assistance from International Organization for Migration (IOM) Philippines in partnership with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Among the benefiting villages were Gadongan and Calocan East which both established grocery stores, Emie Punud and Sagonsongan which opted to have a tarpaulin printing business, and Dulay Proper, Wawalayan Calocan, Lilod Saduc, Pantaon, Tampilong and Ambolong which all aimed for rice trading.
IOM Philippines National Project Officer Luzwellah Diaca said under the project "Driving Marawi’s Rehabilitation through IDP Support, Community Development and Peaceful Transitional Action," her team has been pursuing to provide livelihood aid to residents of 72 villages by giving training and packages to enable them to start their own businesses within their respective communities.
“Ang lahat ng 72 less affected areas na ito ay may nakaestablish tayo na mga community working group (CWG). Sila iyong kinacapacitate natin para magmanage ng livelihood na ibinibigay ni IOM in partnership with KOICA. Mayroon silang different livelihood packages na nirequest,” she said.
[We have established community working groups in all 72 less affected areas here. We capacitated them so that they can manage their livelihood from IOM in partnership with KOICA. They have requested different livelihood packages.]
Diaca said they commenced their assessment of CWGs in 2020 in which confirmation and validation of members happened alongside the prioritization of the first three preferred businesses per group until they came down with the final and most desired livelihood they wanted to run.
After this, the timeline of distribution of packages started with the target communities getting their shares at different moments, depending on the readiness of their physical store and their fulfillment of the conducted training.
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| The International Organization for Migration poses with representatives of the recipient villages situated in the less affected area of Marawi City. This is after the organization formally handed over its livelihood packages to the intended recipients. (Claire R. Gigje/PIA-10/Lanao del Sur) |
Adding up the latest barangay recipients, Diaca said IOM has already handed over livelihood packages to a total of 36 villages in LAA and they hoped to successfully cover the entire area before they conclude their project at the end of this year.
“The team is still on the level of finalization, procurement hanggang sa simultaneous na nagreready rin ang ating CWGs in terms of the physical store at pagtatapos ng lahat ng training na ibinigay sa kanila [and the completion of the training set for them]… This is also in timing ng pagtatapos ng overall na project na ito [to the end of this overall project] in partnership with KOICA because we are looking at by the end of this year, December 2022, we will be able to handover all the 72 livelihood packages sa lahat ng barangays [in all the barangays],” she said.
Seeing a positive change brought about by such support, beneficiaries conveyed their sincerest gratitude to the IOM and KOICA.
“Nagpapasalamat kami sa IOM at KOICA dahil natraining kami sa livelihood. Hindi lahat ng tao ay nakakasali… Sana may susunod pa at maulit ito,” said Salimah Hadji Ali from Brgy. Dulay Proper.
[We are thanking IOM and KOICA because we were able to have training for our livelihood. Not all people could join… I hope there will be more and this will happen again.] (CRG/PIA-10/Lanao del Sur)
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