Saturday, October 06, 2007 Owwa sets up 28 OFW grocery stores in Davao By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE regional office of the Overseas Workers and Welfare Administration (Owwa) recently set up an OFW grocery store in Digos City, the 28th in Davao Region as of last week.
"We help the OFWs to augment their income through these grocery stores. Each store is run by a minimum of five members. We provide P50,000 loan to each group without interest," Ron Lionel Bartolome, Owwa regional director, told Sun.Star Davao Thursday.
Bartolome said each of the OFW groups is given three months grace period before they start paying their loans.
"We do it para naman may maipundar muna ang tindahan, para makabuwelo sila," hesaid.
Bartolome said in Davao City, there are a total of 13 existing OFW grocery stores at present.
He said aside from helping OFWs to augment income through the establishment of grocery stores, Owwa 11 is into livelihood programs in municipalities and cities region-wide.
"We conducted livelihood trainings for the OFW families in New Corella, Digos, Tagum, Mati, and Island Garden City of Samal," Bartolome said, adding that beneficiaries are trained on fishball production, fish processing, and even soap making.
The program, Bartolome said, aims not only to help OFW families get involved in livelihood programs, but also teach them to label and to brand their products.
"We always conduct barangay meetings, kung sino ang interested, they can join the seminar, it is given for free, Owwa provides the food, trainors, and ingredients for the products to be produced," he said.
