Friday, June 27, 2008 From dropouts to stand-outs By Iris C. Montellano
BRENDA Alvarico had barely finished high school when she got married and started a family. She and her husband worked their way through hardship by maintaining a small farm in their hometown in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur.
But when her husband died in 1999, she brought her three sons and her mother to Midsayap, North Cotabato where her elder brother operates a machine shop.
The family has stayed in Midsayap since. Her eldest son was finishing high school when she joined a predominantly male welding class in October 2000.
The welding class is part of the Skills Training and Industry Immersion (STII) Program of the Education Quality and Access for Learning and Livelihood Skills (Equalls2) Project implemented by Save the Children in Midsayap.
Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAid), Equalls2 aims to enhance the life skills of out-of-school children and youth (OSCY) and provide them opportunities for livelihood.
"I used to drive a tricycle to provide for my family's needs. But whenever my motorcycle broke down, I was always at a loss and had to run back to my brother's shop. That got me interested in mechanics. I learned a few things but I also wanted to gain more skills so I joined the welding class," Brenda explained in the vernacular.
Along with 14 of her batchmates, Brenda took the assessment exam of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) in March 2008 and acquired a competency certificate, which made her one of the few female certified welders in the country.
As the master welder of the machine shop, Brenda earns at least P20 for every rod she consumes in a given welding job. This is additional income she gets on top of her machinery work.
For every motorcycle machine she fixes, Brenda gets P500 charge for labor, and her brother only gets 10 percent of it. If she fixes two machines in a day, she earns P900 daily.
"Most of my income is used for my family's daily needs like food, school needs of my children and their pocket money to school. The little that remains I keep as savings because we never know when we need money the most," she said.
Asked what she intends to do with her newly acquired welding skill, Brenda explains that she has started to build a tricycle body for her motorcycle where she stands to earn P150 a day if she rents it to other motorcycle drivers.
"It is really an advantage to have more skills. Before, I only had a limited source of income. But now that I'm a Tesda certified welder, the opportunities to earn additional income just keep coming. That's not bad for a high school graduate like me," she said.
In Datu Piang, Maguindanao, skills training graduates have taken on a bolder entrepreneurship spirit early on. Muktar Urag was 21 when he joined the Cellphone Repair class but it did not take long for him to set up his own cellphone repair shop, which he named after his two elder daughters -- Princess Johanah and Shaleha.
"I was earning at least P1,000 a day when I first started repairing cellphone units here in Datu Piang, of course, back then, there were only three cellphone shops here," he added.
After graduating from STII on December 2005, Muktar and the rest of his batch mates received a set of power tester, soldering iron, and tools so they can put to use their new-acquired skills in repairing common cellphone problems.
Muktar asked for initial capital from his father to buy a surplus personal computer and cellphone accessories to start off his own cellphone repair shop.
"I use the computer for logo and ring tone downloads, and all these cellphone accessories are for sale," he enthused, pointing to the supplies in his shop.
Muktar also managed to obtain additional skills through direct experience and consultations with other colleagues in the business.
But competition has become stiffer recently. From only three in 2006, there are now seven cellphone repair shops in Datu Piang, which led to a stiffer business competition. Muktar plans to revive his business by buying more supplies in Davao City.
"I honestly don't know how I would provide for my eldest daughter's preschool education this June if I didn't have this business," he added.
The Equalls2 Project also conducted a skills training designed for out-of-school girls in Datu Piang. One of those who benefited from the training is Anna Pagayao, a second year high school dropout.
In March 2006, Anna joined the Dressmaking and Bag Making class along with 24 other girls. As a housewife, Anna used to depend on her husband's salary alone. But with her newly acquired dressmaking skills, she now has enough money to give her children "baon" for school.
The Equalls2 Project provided two sewing machines and other dressmaking tools that Anna and the other graduates are now using to start-up dressmaking operations. Anna shares one sewing machine with four of her batch mates who come to her house and use it whenever they have job orders.
Anna says she has not significantly become richer because of her dressmaking skills but she considers it an achievement, especially as a high school dropout and housewife.
"Before, we had to wait for our husbands to come home before we could prepare our meals. With the P25 service fee I get for every repair, my children and I can buy our own lunch. It is empowering for us, housewives and mothers," Anna explained.
She added that with her newly acquired skill, she can now save up the money she used to spend for making and repairing the clothes of her children. Asked what their most sellable item is, "Our masterpiece is pajama pants, the most sellable item among our products. Customers also get our services to mend "ukay" or used items for re-sizing and minor repairs," she shared.
USAid's Equalls2 Project aims to change course of life of some 42,000 out-of-school children and youth for the better by conducting skills training programs in selected 39 municipalities and cities in Regions 9, 12, and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm).
In many of these municipalities, communities are submerged in poverty and are often caught between sporadic armed conflicts within and outside their communities.
Equalls2 project and Save the Children are working to implement alternative learning systems in these areas to help dropouts reintegrate into formal education or gain livelihood skills.
Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change for children in need in the United States and around the world. In the Philippines, Save the Children has worked with underserved children for 25 years.
