12 CSOs get P10-M Dole grant

TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte – About 12 Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the local government unit of Tagum City were made the beneficiaries of a P10 million-peso grant from the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) under its BottomsUp Budgeting Process (now formally called the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process).

In a recent turnover ceremony at the Freedom Park, Tagum City, the 12 organizations whose combined membership is totaled at 2,398 individuals, were awarded with Certificates of Entitlement for their respective livelihood projects and programs. These include Livelihood Assistance for Women, Fisher Folks, Fish Landing Laborers, Mangrove Growers, Muslims and Indigenous Peoples; Fruits and Vegetables Negokart Project; OFW Reintegration Project; Digital T-shirt Printing Project and Bigasan Project.

Dole Region XI Assistant Director Atty. Jason Balais rallied the beneficiaries who were gathered to exert enough effort to ensure the strengthening of the livelihood programs and projects of the CSOs so that these would eventually generate new sets of employment, thereby helping the Dole in the reduction of the unemployment rate, not only in the region, but in the entire country.

The 12 Dole grantees are the Magugpo West Women’s Association, Garinan Mangrove Association, Inc., Women of Rural Improvement Club, Tagum Fish Landing Unified Labors Association, Barangay Tribal Council, Federation of Imams and Datus, Liboganon Fisher Folks Association, Cabugan SEA-K Organization, Negosyanteng Angat Grow Micro Biz, OFW Family Circle, Urban Poor Association of Cebole and 4H Club of Busaon.

Subsequently, Dole Region XI also turned over to the City Government of Tagum and unveiled one (1) unit of Job Search Kiosk (JSK) at the 3rd Floor of the Old City Hall Building.

The use of the kiosk, a user-friendly information portal that provides information on job opportunities and other employment-related information, both local and overseas, is geared towards easing the job hunting activities of the fresh graduates and other types of jobseekers through fast tracked accesses to relevant information on job openings, such as the hiring requirements of employers.

It is worthy to note that the City of Tagum is one of the 11 local government units in the country that was chosen by Dole to be given the JSK due to its potential for job employment generation, and reduction for unemployment as well as underemployment.