Foreign agencies give livelihood support to 24 Moro groups

COTABATO CITY — Three international agencies and the Bangsamoro government on Tuesday provided essential livelihood support to 24 groups from towns that are now bouncing back from armed conflicts and calamities.

The grant of food processing equipment to the 24 community-based organizations during a symbolic rite in Cotabato City last Tuesday was initiated by officials of the Bangsamoro labor and agriculture ministries, the Australian Aid, the Food and Agriculture Office which is under the United Nations and the United Nations Population Fund.

The FAO, UNFPA, the Australian Aid and the Bangsamoro government are implementing in Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur provinces a socio-economic program meant to hasten the recovery of families in both areas from poverty caused by calamities and domestic security woes.

The program is dubbed Resilient Livelihoods Development for Women and Youth Internally Displaced Persons.

Bangsamoro Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, who is chairman of the central committee of the Moro National Liberation Front that forged on Sept. 2, 1996 a peace agreement with Malacañang, said they are grateful to the FAO, UNFPA and the Australian Aid for cooperating in efforts to alleviate Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in a number of towns in Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur.

The program, launched in 2022, will last until 2025, according to BARMM officials and representatives of the three foreign humanitarian entities present in Tuesday’s event at the Mall of Alnor in Cotabato City.

A 48-year-old mother, Guiamelan Sayutin, told reporters at the sideline of the event that the food processing equipment and other provisions needed for their barangay-based livelihood projects will boost their earnings that they need for the schooling of their children.

“Armed conflicts in past years and perennial floods in our barangays have forced us to relocate to higher grounds and, adversely, made us become so poor,” Sayutin, an official of the Sigay Nu mga Babay community organization in Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur, said.

All of the community-based groups benefiting from the foreign-assisted program for IDPs are registered with the Bureau of Labor Relations and Standards of the Ministry of Labor and Employment-BARMM, which has separate projects complementing the joint poverty alleviation thrusts of the FAO, UNFPA, Australian Aid and the autonomous regional government.