08 February 2010


DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao – One hundred women benefited from a two-day women’s assembly organized by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DSWD-ARMM) to make them accessible to government services and projects.


These beneficiaries belong to the Badak Women Association composed Moro and Tiruray women from different sitios of Barangay Badak.


According to DSWD-ARMM assistant secretary Pombaen Kader, the assembly enables these women craft plans and programs strengthen their association with the assistance of ARMM agencies such as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), and the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA).


With the support of DSWD-ARMM, the Badak Women Association has been recipient of the Learning Livelihood and Food Sufficiency (LLFS) program of the ARMM Social Fund Projects through its Community Development Assistance (CDA), which promotes local women empowerment, said Kader, who is concurrent acting DSWD-ARMM secretary.


The LLFS program trains participants on livelihood and income-generating activities, and also undertakes functional literacy training that requires 150-hour classroom sessions under the non-formal education by the Department of Education (DepEd).


The training provides women and mothers especially from the far-flung areas basic ability to read and write as well as mathematics. It also affords them technical, financial and material support for the household food sufficiency which is designed to address the nutritional needs of their families.


Ms. Jennylyn Yap of the DSWD-ARMM said that their office is now planning to make Badak Women Association as model women group in the entire region for them to continuously avail of the services of the women’s welfare program of the DSWD-ARMM.


About 270 communities are being targeted for the Learning Livelihood and Food Sufficiency as part of its sustainability program under the CDA component of the ARMM Social Fund Project. (bpi-armm)