Ata-manobo women graduated from the 15-day skills training and capability building on dressmaking and beads crafting, as part of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Indigenous Knowledge System Practices project.
The 36 women received their livelihood training certificates during their graduation last week in Kapalong, Davao del Norte.
“The inclusion of women in paid physical labor and in their participation in the planning and decision-making for social development issues” is among the agency’s strategy to ensure the involvement of every citizens in the development projects, said Kalahi CIDSS-NCDDP gender specialist Lourdes Turiano.
“Each year, for every barangay, we have over 30 volunteers that we empower through training, seminars, and workshops. Some of them already became barangay officials because they already acquired knowledge from the training,” DSWD XI project development officer Ervin Rubio told TIMES on Tuesday.
As of April 2019, there were already 20,619 Kalahi-CIDSS women community volunteers in Davao Region, 36.87% of which are laborers in the construction of community sub-projects while 55.74% are trained in program workshops and capacity building activities.
Moreover, the project also serves as a bridge to strengthen the partnership between the local governance institutions and the Indigenous Political Structures without exploiting the tribe’s culture.
