Sponsors' Testimony

Through Lao Foundation and Association of Foundation, Dualtech Center was invited to join the Education Cluster of Zero Extreme Poverty (ZEP) 2030 Coalition, a movement which aims to reduce poverty incidence by providing education, training, and livelihood to Filipinos who are among the most marginalized in the country.

During the ZEP 2030 Education Cluster Meeting and Learning Session on July 10, 2019, Dualtech Center hosted the meeting to explore potential partnership among many other foundations, institutions, and LGUs.

The story of Basilan scholars

The island province of Basilan is located just off the southern coast of the Zamboanga Peninsula. It is the largest island of the Sulu Archipelago. Basilan is a third-class province in terms of gross provincial income. And, ranked 20 among the Philippines’ 80 provinces in terms of incidences of poverty.

True to its word to “serve the fringes of society”, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) visited Basilan to campaign for students for scholarship and presented Dualtech as an option. It was quite easy to convince young men to enrol at Dualtech; to escape from poverty. Financial problems being the cause for dropping out of school is repeated often in Basilan.

Solving poverty by bridging the gap between available jobs and skill deficiency, Angat- Buhay program, the flagship anti- poverty program of the Office of the Vice- President (OVP), arranged the Vice President’s visit to Dualtech Training Center last April 4, 2019.

A milestone for Dualtech Center, the visit opened discussions among stakeholders and various industrial- manufacturing firms, to coordinate on necessary skills development program for the youth from different regions in the country with high poverty incidence and unemployment rate.

The Vice-President of the Philippines called on employers to focus on constant collaboration to address the poverty that cripples many far flung communities across the country and to light the path for others during the 40th National Conference of Employers held at Marriot Hotel Manila in Pasay City.

With the theme, “Future- Proofing Business and Industry,” Leni Robredo invited  employers and their firms  to join her office in its advocacies, especially in helping the poor Filipino youth. She mentioned that the ongoing insurgency and threat of terrorism in the Mindanao region has led to wide displacement of residents, inaccessibility to basic health and medical requirements, and still high rates of poverty and unemployment.