The indigenous people communities in two far-flung barangays in Davao del Sur were the first to benefit from the rollout of the livelihood seeding program of the Department of Trade and Industry in the province.
The DTI Davao del Sur field office started off its implementation of the Negosyo Serbisyo sa Barangay-Livelihood Seeding Program for this year, involving 20 IP members from the Blaan tribe as recipients.
There were ten (10) IP beneficiaries from Barangay Kimlawis in the municipality of Kiblawan, who received sari-sari store livelihood starter kits when the program was launched on June 4, 2021.
Another batch of recipients, comprising ten (10) Blaan members from Barangay Saub in Matanao town, was also provided with the starter kits on Tuesday (June 8).
Apart from the starter kits, the beneficiaries have also participated in a free seminar where they have learned knowledge on entrepreneurial mind setting, basic accounting, financial literacy and sari-sari store management.
The DTI Negosyo Center business counselors also provided free one-on-one business cliniquing.
The livelihood seeding program aims to assist the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to recover from the economic effect of natural and man-made disasters.
It is also to encourage them to restore their sustainable livelihood enterprises by providing grant-in-kind assistance, and capacitating them with seminars and training on basic entrepreneurship skills.
“Given all the calamities we experience in Davao del Sur, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the livelihood seeding program of DTI provides an opportunity for our micro, small and medium enterprises to restore their businesses through the provision of livelihood starter kits,” stated Maria Victoria Placer, OIC provincial director of DTI Davao del Sur.
Placer said, “We want to empower our entrepreneurs in these barangays and provide them opportunities to scale up their businesses leading towards the achievement of our goals of inclusive growth in DTI.”
For this year, she bared that they target to visit 20 barangays in the province and distribute 220 livelihood starter kits to qualified MSMEs.
“This year, we are taking the challenge to reach farther barangays like Barangay Kimlawis in Kiblawan,” Placer said. (PIA-XI, Carina L. Cayon)
