DSWD Bags SLP Sulong Bayanihan 2019 Awards

The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office VII bagged 2 awards in the recently concluded Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) Sulong Bayanihan 2019 held in Sequoia Hotel, Quezon City.

The first Sulong Bayanihan 2019 national competition was held on June 17-19, 2019. The 3-day activity aims to showcase the program’s milestones in terms of promoting and facilitating the continuous development and strengthening of efforts to solidify the convergence of families and communities towards identification and building-up of program champions and advocacies.

Spearheaded by the DSWD SLP National Program Management Office (NPMO) through Director Restituto B. Macuto, the activity was divided into 3 main conferences: SIBOL Kakayahan on the first day, SIBOL Kabuhayan on the second day and SIBOL Kaagapay on the third day.

SIBOL Kakayahan

The SIBOL Kakayahan conference served as an avenue for co-learning and dialogue among participating SLPA officers and program participants, to affirm the dignity and growth of the participant’s capabilities and livelihood asset bases. The SLP participants got ideas from practitioners of social entrepreneurship, who provided guidance on how to negotiate with industry players and how community livelihood could become an entry point for community organizing.

Also, the participants officially opened the Likhang Hiraya 2019: SLP Product Exhibit and Photo Display. The activity staged the various local products made the SLP participants from 17 regions in the Philippines. In this way, the public and private partners were given the chance to meticulously look and check some of the products that the SLPAs made.

SIBOL Kabuhayan

The activity for SIBOL Kabuhayan was through break-out sessions. Each of the national finalists for each category presented their SLPA’s stories on how their livelihood assets have grown through the SLP intervention, organizational development, contribution to local economic development, behavioral change, their business model viability, roadmap for diversification or expansion, and details of their employment success or endeavors.

On the same day, Nena Pableo of Poblacion Pantawid SLPA in Moalboal, Cebu and Ma. Luna Furog of Poblacion Talibon Association for Sustainable Livelihood in Talibon, Bohol, the SLP national finalists for Market Category of Micro-enterprise Development (MD) track presented their SLPA stories to the crowd. The track has 9 categories to compete: Market, Lupa-Atbp, Gawang-Kamay, Transform, Libot/Serbis, Tiyaga, Sikap, Dunong and Trabajo categories.

“It was hard doing the business for the first time since we do not have any experience or skills in doing so. To help us improve on this part, we undergo training of simple bookkeeping with the help of DSWD SLP in partnership with DTI. We were taught how to understand the method of improving the business.

In our monthly meeting, we discussed the methods and imposed unity and helping one another to ensure the improvement of this business,” said Ma. Luna Furog.

Nena Pableo expressed, “The SLP project does not only give us livelihood. Most importantly it gives us some valuable lessons on how to be a model leader or member in an association.

Being a leader is not easy. Challenges, arguments come but I keep an open mind to listen to everyone. It’s one of the things that I learned that I was able to impart also to my family.”

Also, Kervin Dominise of Dalaguete, Cebu, the national finalist for Sikap Category of Employment Facilitation (EF) presented his story of change not only to his life but also to his family.

“One day my father told me that the DSWD has a program that will provide free skills training for out of school youths and jobless people. I got interested and hoped that I could find a job. This program is the DSWD Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP). After the training, SLP gave Php5000 to the participants to help them in the requirement expenses for their future employment. Then, I tried applying to different call center companies in Cebu City but since I’m a college undergraduate and no call center experience I was rejected many times. Fortunately, in my eight attempt, I was given the chance by a company based on the knowledge and skills that I got from the free skills training. And now, I belong to Qualfon Cebu Site,” said Kervin.

Those were some of the astonishing words that the finalists shared to the crowd. True grit is indeed the key to success.

SIBOL KAAGAPAY: SLP enabler’s forum

On the 3rd day of the event, various stakeholders were enjoined with SLP to collaborate through the following areas: capacity-building, access to resources, market linkage, research and policy support. This is intended to draw support for the SLP through service learning programs of colleges and universities, integrating timelines of livelihood assistance delivery with NGOs, NGAs, and CSR arms to address gaps in program implementation, and linking smallholder farmers with inclusive business for project sustainability.

On the same day was also the official launching of SLP brand awareness campaign on Solidarity and Innovations in Bridging Opportunities for Livelihoods (SIBOL) and the conduct of Gabi ng PagSibol Awards Night, the awarding ceremony of notable and most outstanding MD and EF models.

Each category received three major awards composed of Gawad Sibol (1st place or Champion), Gawad Usbong (2nd place) and Gawad Punla (3rd place).

The Winners

The Sulong Bayanihan entries were in a tight competition. And, the DSWD SLP Regional Program Management Office (RPMO) is proud to have the story of Kervin Dominise as the Gawad Sibol (1st place or Champion) under the Sikap Category of EF and the story of Poblacion Talibon Association for Sustainable Livelihood in Talibon, Bohol who got the Gawad Usbong (2nd place) under the Market category of MD track.

The winners received Php 20,000 for the 1st place, Php 10,000 for the 2nd place and Php 5,000 for the 3rd place.