DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The University of the Philippines in Mindanao will be training women in enterprise management in a village near its campus for a month to help them acquire livelihood skills.
Speaking at Wednesday’s Habi at Kape press conference, Raymundo Pavo, head of Office of Gender and Anti-Sexual Harassment of UPMin, said the activity was started last Feb. 6 and will end on Mar. 27.
He said women in Sitio 117, Barangay Oshiro, Tugbok district will benefit from the training.
The activities were a sequel to its 2014 livelihood activities in the same community, he added.
Dubbed as “Strategic Planning for Women’s Enterprise”, the program aims equip women with skills in managing their organizations and in enterprise.
Pavo said that this year they will “level up” the training.
“Instead of livelihood, the program aims that they will be organized, not just for livelihood but also in enterprise, with vision and mission to enable them to manage it,” he said.
During the 2014 activity, Pavo said “only very few succeed.” He said they hope the group of women they will train will gain progress in their enterprise.
“With the series of training, we’re lucky to have two or three who are encouraged (to pursue the enterprise) within a span of two years,” Pavo said, adding that they have been in contact with the successful participants from the 2014 activity.
“There have been casual greetings, if there were developments, if they still pursue it and their progress,” Pavo added.
The UP professor also said that the program gave them the situationer on how women face business enterprise.
In gender studies, Pavo said, many issues need to be tackled in connection with enterprise.
“We need to contextualize enterprise to the gender. We don’t want women to further burden by these opportunities, we want this enterprise to contribute to gender equity to the community,” he said.
Pavo said 30 women took part in this year’s livelihood training. He said these women will produce strategic plans on their chosen enterprise.
“The next step for them is to be organized and prepare to capitalize opportunities as well,” Pavo said.
The series of activities and seminars that the selected women took part in are: Women Becoming Entrepreneurs: Contexts, Challenges, and Opportunities; Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management; Operations Management; Organizing a Cooperative; Financial Management; Marketing Management; Online Marketing; Integration; Development of the Final Strategic Plan Paper; and Presentation of the Strategic Plan Paper.
The program is a collaboration between the UP Mindanao School of Management, Office of Extension and Community Service, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. (davaotoday.com)
