Hope continues to flow like a river for senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Pasig City through an emergency employment program.
While there are projects like “Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers” (Tupad), most seniors and PWDs find the available jobs as street sweepers or road maintenance crew too arduous for their age and physical limitations.
Such concerns prompted the Public Employment Service Office (Peso) and Livelihood Office of Pasig City to launch “SiPAG-ASA,” an employment project that would instead have senior citizens and disabled persons weaving native bags or bayong out of scrap materials, like tetra packs, straws or jute sacks.
150 beneficiaries
Jelene Sison Lopez, head of Pasig Peso, said that aside from being environmentally friendly, the project is aimed at the “inclusion and promotion of senior citizens and PWDs in emergency employment and livelihood assistance through skills that support their ability to…contribute to their family income.”The first batch of participants in the local government-funded initiative started the 11-day recycling activity on Aug. 17. To date, City Hall has listed a total of 150 beneficiaries making up three batches.
“All interested applicants undergo a recruitment and assessment process,” said Lopez, adding that once qualified, they are endorsed to the livelihood training team for orientation and the start of the recycling project.Source of hope
Quoting feedback from SiPAG-ASA’s “graduates,” Lopez said the activity did not just provide earnings that could be used as capital “but it also made [the beneficiaries] realize that they can learn more and do more.”
She added: “[The project] gave them hope to strive and do their best to earn a living even out of the scrap materials.”
While the support of Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto, the Pasig City Council headed by Vice Mayor Dodot Jaworski and the Office of Rep. Roman Romulo has kept the initiative going, Lopez said it also needs assistance from the private sector and institutions who could offer free training and employment opportunities.
“Mayor Vico [wants] to create sustainable projects that will benefit people in the long term and this includes SiPAG-ASA, as he had said during the first batch’s graduation,” Lopez said.
The local chief executive is in “full support” of expanding the project and making it an industry in Pasig City, the head of Pasig Peso added. INQ
