INTERNALLY displaced persons (IDPs) formally completed their 25-day skills training program intended to help them recover from the devastations wrought by the 2013 siege.
Mohammad Melhadi Diri said the training would “open the door for a better future.”
“This is proof that every cloud has silver lining,” Diri, a resident of Rio Hondo village, said.
The village of Rio Hondo was among the most affected villages in the 21-day September 2013 siege.
The siege started on September 9, 2013 when hundreds of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) members loyal to MNLF Chair Nurulaji Misuari infiltrated four villages of Zamboanga City.
Diri and 119 others formally completed their capacity building program with employment facilitation services at the Red Cross Training Center on Thursday, December 15.
Diri said the training equips him and other displace people with the necessary skills that will ensure them income-earning activities.
Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar advised the graduates to make use of their newly-learned skills to improve their lives and those of their families.
Salazar vowed that the city will continue to initiate measures, in partnership with other agencies and organizations to assist the IDPs rise up from the ruins caused by the siege.
The welfare of the IDPs who remain in the transitory sites and home-based was the focus of the discussion during the year-end meeting of the Committee on Governance and Rule of Law chaired by City Legal Officer Jesus Carbon.
Organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the activity specifically tackled the Code of Beneficiary Selection for the Zamboanga City roadmap to recovery and reconstruction (Z3R).
More or less 1,995 families with a total of 11,410 dependents remain in the 11 transitory sites as of December 13.
The committee tackled issues and concerns related to the implementation of the code which has been approved last year. (Sunnex)