Globe, AFI, Virlanie lauds training program graduates
A total of 100 women from disadvantaged communities celebrated a major milestone in their journey towards financial stability and independence as they became the first batch of graduates from the livelihood program of the Globe-led Hapag Movement.
The Hapag Movement is Globe and its partners’ unified fight against involuntary hunger, aiming to provide support for 500,000 Filipinos through tech-driven channels. The training program complements the supplemental feeding program in a 12-week engagement which will be done with various communities nationwide.
In a special ceremony held recently in Quezon City, the pioneer batch was recognized by Globe, the Ayala Foundation, and partner organization Virlanie Foundation.
The graduates came from partner communities at the Manila North Cemetery, Parola, Rolling Hills, and Bagong Silangan in Quezon City. They were enrolled in various programs including beauty care, baking, food processing, rags making and sewing, and mushroom and urban gardening.
During the ceremony, the graduates showcased and sold some of their products, including macaroons, banana bread, banana muffins, chocolate chip cookies, rags, potholders, and custom-designed tote bags. They are also proud GCash users and able to conduct cashless transactions. Beauty care graduates even volunteered to style and help each other with their makeup in preparation for the ceremony.
The program achieved several milestones, including improving product quality, reducing competition among members, adjusting prices to be more competitive, and helping communities become formal cooperatives.
The Hapag Movement is particularly important given the current unemployment rate in the Philippines, which was 5% in September 2022, translating to 2.50 million unemployed Filipinos out of 50.08 million in the labor force. The services sector consistently dominates the labor market, registering the largest share of 58.9% of the total employed population.
Educating MSMEs on digitalization
Growsari and TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) Women Center (TWC) are now partners in enabling sari-sari stores and micro, small and medium enterprises to adapt to digitalization and empowering them using technology.
Starting January 2023, Growsari will be part of the iSTAR program of TESDA as an access to resources to all graduates of the program.
In partnership with Coca Cola Philippines, TESDA’s iSTAR Program builds on the success of the Sari-sari Store Training and Access to Resources (STAR) program under TWC. The program aims to train women micro entrepreneurs and give them access to different resources to grow their businesses. Through the program, over 200,000 women were empowered and taught on how to start their small business. Growsari will be teaching the graduates on the benefits of e-commerce technology.
Graduates from the iSTAR program will undergo different lessons on how to use the platform to procure their physical goods from Growsari, unlock additional revenue streams with digital products such as load, bills and cash-in, whilst leveraging their credit line for working capital. In addition, Growsari will educate them on demand generation tactics with their customers through competitive pricing and exclusive promos.
Mayor aims to revive hometown as Home of Bakers
Mayor Alexander Magpantay of Cuenca, Batangas Big dreams of reviving the local bakery industry in his hometown for it to once again be Home of the Bakers.
Magpantay said he and his team are working closely with relevant stakeholders to ensure that they are able to uplift the status of the community bakers in the town.
“As an entrepreneur, I knew with the expansion I was doing together with my family, I was creating more jobs for the local community, helping family and friends who are unable to invest and are afraid to start a business on their own, and that’s how I started to think deeper and ask myself how I could further help and serve more,” Magpantay, an engineer by profession, adds.
The mayor said they are working with the likes of Tinapayan Festival, Technological University of the Philippines, and the LGUs of Alitagtag and Cuenca to put up a school that is specific to baking. They are looking forward to having a short course related to baking so that more from the community will learn the basics in knowledge, skills, and training to become great bakers.
“We are hoping to provide basic training that could enable around 50-60% of what is sold in the schools in Cuenca and Alitagtag to be the baked products produced in the TUP campus in this town. We are hoping, together with the support of all relevant stakeholders including the office of our Governor Mandanas, that we will aim for Batangas to become the baking capital of the Philippines,” Mayor Magpantay emphasizes.
MAP head named
Benedicta Du-Baladad, founding partner and chief executive officer of Du-Baladad & Associates (BDB Law), takes on the role of leading the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) for 2023 with her election as its 75th president.
Du-Baladad brings to the table a solid experience in management: an accountant and a lawyer, with a joint degree of Master of Law and International Tax Program at Harvard University.
Joining Baladad on the MAP 2023 Board of Governors are Isla Lipana & Co./PwC Philippines chair emeritus and ESG Leader Alexander Cabrera as VP; DITO CME COO Donald Lim as treasurer; HSBC Philippines treasurer, head of Markets and Securities Services, and member of ExCom Ma. Corazon Purisima as assistant treasurer; IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines senior advisor Karen Batungbacal as secretary; and, as governors: Brain Trust Inc. chair Cielito Habito, P&A Grant Thornton founder Benjamin Punongbayan, PHINMA Corp. president and COO Chito Salazar, and Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc. president and CEO Martha Sazon.
Duty Free sale
Duty Free Philippines (DFP) welcomes the Year of the Water Rabbit with the first sale campaign of the year dubbed Chinese New Year Jan-Pack Sale on January 21 to 23.
International travelers are in for exciting deals as participating brands will offer as much as 20 percent discount on selected items. The sale will run on January 21 at DFP’s downtown Fiestamall store in Paranaque City and on January 22 to 23 at Luxe Duty Free in Pasay City.
Education Leadership Forum
Education tech (edtech) solutions provider Anthology partnered with the US Embassy in Manila for a Higher Education Leadership Forum in Grand Hyatt Manila, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
The forum aimed to look at the pain points the education sector faces in the aftermath of the pandemic, how these pain points have affected the Philippines in particular, and what new solutions in edtech can do to solve them. Discussions during the forum specifically focused on combating learning loss, enabling learning accessibility, and the provision of in-demand skills for students and educators. The forum is especially timely as educational institutions make their way into the ‘new normal’ of teaching.
Anthology currently supports over 150 million users in 80 countries, providing them with a learning management system, server intelligent storage, and customer relationship management tools.
Bayad, PitakaMo partnership
CIS Bayad Center Inc. (Bayad) relaunched its partnership with PitakaMo IT Solutions and Marketing Corp., a digital payment service provider of its franchisor brand AllEn One Grocery and Payment Center (AllEn One).
AllEn One has established over 47 store branches nationwide in just a span of two years. It continues to offer value added services including a one stop shop bills payment solution, enabled by Bayad’s upgraded system integration with PitakaMo.
AllEn One customers can expect seamless payment transactions with various billers covering services like electric and water utility, cable and internet, government contributions, loan payments, school tuition fees, online shopping, insurance, and many others.
Security Bankers scholarship program
Security Bank Foundation Inc (SBFI) has raised funds for the bank’s agency personnel scholarship program, the Regalo Mo, Kinabukasan Ko (RMKK) for school year 2022-2023.
RMKK is SBFI’s scholarship program for Security Bank agency personnel and their children aspiring to finish their studies.
For academic year 2022-2023, the scholarship program is supporting 116 scholars–26 elementary, 34 junior high, 22 senior high, and 34 college students.
Managing withdrawal symptoms
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