BONTOC, Mountain Province. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through its Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) continues to implement its livelihood projects in different municipalities of Mountain Province.

From January to April 2018, SLP has already provided a total of Php. 4,177,475.00 seed capital fund to eight associations and Php 2,239,925.00 worth of skills training to 115 individuals in the municipalities of Sagada, Sabangan, Tadian, Natonin, and Paracelis.

The livelihood assistance is under the Seed Capital Fund (SCF) and Skills Training (ST) modalities of SLP which aim to provide financial support and acquisition of technical and vocational knowledge and skills to the program participants for engaging in and maintain thriving livelihoods.

The participants are identified based on their capacities or resources, as well as their proximity to the existing opportunities. The DSWD-SLP through the Implementing Project Development Officer (IPDO) will work with the City/Municipal Link (C/ML) of Pantawid, Area Coordinator (AC) of Kalahi-CIDDS, Local Government Unit (LGU) and other local government agencies for the identification of area, participant and project.

“This 2018, SLP is open to every qualified resident of CAR especially to the poor, marginalized, and disadvantaged,” said Janet P. Armas, OIC-Regional Director.

She explained that poor individuals who are neither Pantawid beneficiaries nor Listahanan identified poor may avail of the program as long as they pass the Means Test which is an assessment tool used by the Listahanan to determine if they are qualified.

Projects of program participants are funded once project proposal are approved and the associations are accredited by DSWD. #DSWD-CAR, Social Marketing Unit, Babble Mae Gorio