A total of 49 parent leaders (PLs) from provinces of Guimaras and Iloilo now serve as
program advocates of the Department of Social Welfare and Development 6 (DSWD-6) especially on the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
Training Specialist II Richard Dean Layon said these newly-trained PLs are now become effective partner-advocates after they completed the three –day training last week.
“They are now moved to level two,” he said.
Level two includes training on effective communication, advocacy, leadership, self- esteem, personal visioning and how to achieve their vision while level one of the training includes enhancement of leadership skills and capacity building.
“Parent leaders as program advocates are now our ‘extension arm’ who can directly answers queries and other misconceptions from the ground because they are the ones who could testify the effectiveness and gains of the program and how the program changes their lives. Also, they are the best advocates of our program especially in promoting our tagline Maagap at Mapagkalingang Serbisyo at DSWD May Malasakit”, said Layon.
Layon added that DSWD-6 has now more than 600 trained parent leaders with the new additional numbers of program advocates.
Meanwhile, Enrico Condes, parent leader from Tubungan, Iloilo said the training helped him gained more knowledge on how to become an effective advocate to his co-beneficiaries in their barangay. Condes also said he will share all the information he learned from the workshop to his members so that they could also apply what he learned from the training.
As a solo parent, Condes said balancing his time between his four children and members is not an easy task but he accepted the responsibility because he knew that he could help more to his members.
Condes said through the program, he has able to send his four children in school with good health. In fact, he was his eldest son is already in second year college and presently a grantee of the Student Grant-In-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (SGPPA).
“I wish, my children could finish their studies”, he ended.//dswd6/Montesa G. Caoyonan