Monday, June 30, 2008 Dole to give typhoon victims emergency jobs, livelihood
THE Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) will provide emergency wage employment and livelihood to workers displaced by Typhoon Frank (Fengshen) in the hardest hit areas in the Visayas.
With this, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque activated the Dole adjustment measures program (AMP) to fund the emergency employment and livelihood program for affected workers who lost their jobs and livelihood in Regions VI (Western Visayas), VII (Central Visayas), and VIII (Eastern Visayas).
Dole personnel in the three regions have been mobilized to identify target beneficiaries in the typhoon-damaged areas in coordination with concerned local government units (LGUs) and other inter-agency groups.
"It is essential to help subsistence workers meet their survival needs through the restoration of their livelihood to enable them regain their productivity and quickly graduate from being dependent to relief efforts," Roque said.
He said the workers that will be prioritized are those who lost their income and livelihood sources like farm implements and animals due to the calamity especially those whose properties were totally damaged and those formerly engaged in a particular craft or skill.
The organized craftsmen or women in a particular productive trade and subsistence workers collectively operating a handicraft or micro-enterprise would likewise be prioritized.
Roque said the first component of the assistance is to provide the beneficiaries, through the LGUs, with emergency employment particularly in clearing and de-clogging operations and reconstruction efforts like the repair of damaged infrastructure such as school buildings, daycare centers, drainage, irrigation system, and farm to market roads.
About 2,780 workers from the three regions will benefit from this form of assistance.
The second component, on the other hand, will assist the beneficiaries in reviving their means of livelihood.
He said the beneficiaries will be assisted in acquiring their livelihood resources such as farm implements, carpentry tools, cooking wares, repair kits, and even farm animals that had been lost due to the typhoon.
About 5,400 affected workers will benefit from this second component of which about 3,600 will come from Region VI; 600 from Region VII; and 1,200 from Region VIII.
The assistance to the affected workers will be channeled through accredited co-partners (ACPs).
The labor department has tapped the network of Public Employment Service Offices (Pesos) in the Visayas to screen and interview the target beneficiaries to facilitate the provision of assistance suited to their needs.
Assistance will include skills training to be conducted by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda). (FP/Sunnex)
