Rising from Poverty

Promising Future through Scholarship of Lao Foundation, Inc.

“It is true that a simple “Thank you” greeting is not enough to match the help that Dualtech and Lao Foundation gave to all of us scholars, so we want to promise that we will really live on the teachings we have learnt to say #TatakDualtechKami.”

–          Mark Ian Belano, Dualtech Alumni and Lao Foundation – ZEP 2030 Scholar (2022)

Aiming to address the perennial concern of poverty in the Philippines, Zero Extreme Poverty (ZEP) 2030, also known as “ZEP 2030” is a social movement of many conglomerates and foundations striving to provide solutions in different facets; including education, most especially through scholarships. As one of those affiliated with this social concern, Lao Foundation, Inc. worked together with Dualtech Training Center Foundation, Inc. towards achieving this objective.

ZEP 2030 had an initiative in the sector of education to have two million (2,000,000) employed or self-employed Filipino across the nation, and this can be achieved through nurturing today’s youth by arming them with educational skills, mindset, and values first.

Among the forty (40) Lao scholars under the ZEP 2030 initiative was Mark Ian E. Belano, a Senior High School graduate in Calamba City. Unable to continue towards college education even after getting approved for a scholarship program in a university, he opted to look for opportunities within Calamba City. This is when he found Dualtech and got attracted to its course offering of a 2-year Electromechanics Technology program.

Not wanting the pandemic to hinder his dreams, he enrolled in July 2020. After being chosen as a Lao scholar – ZEP 2030, he continued in his Basic Stage Training Program (BSTP) and was then assigned to D&L Polymer & Colours Inc. (one of the companies under the D&L Industries) during his in-plant training.

Mark quoted Nelson Mandela that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”, believing that this will be an integral tool towards combating challenges in life especially poverty; a concern which reverberates with ZEP 2030 in one of its thematic clusters. He also shared how unlike in textbooks in which you can skip some pages, life unfolding cannot be prevented from presenting challenges but what is important is keeping everything one has learned to use.

Lao Foundation has been a long-time partner of Dualtech Center in educating the youth for eventual employment. For the ZEP2030 project, the scholars were given the opportunity to uplift their lives from poverty through skills training, values formation, and industry immersion among the partner companies of Dualtech Center.