Giving out-of-school youths a chance

Agnes Balon, NMBK: Third among four siblings, Agnes, 22, was an Electronics Engineering undergraduate but had to stop due to lack of funds for tuition. Though unemployed, she had many sidelines like direct selling and a prepaid loading station but her income was not enough to meet the family’s needs. Under the NMBK training program, Agnes worked as office staff for almost two years. Today she is going back to school and is determined to finish. She hopes to give back and help more out-of-school youth.

For the past two years, Go Negosyo has been supporting its Negosyo Mo, Bukas Ko (NMBK) program of helping deserving out-of-school youths (OSYs) get jobs so they can save up to go back to school, finish college or even take a vocational course.

Since it started nine years ago, Go Negosyo has been inspiring Filipinos to beat poverty by having a positive, enterprising mindset and knowhow. But there are some out there who need a helping hand — the OSYs whose parents, due to poverty, are not able to fund their schooling.

We do our best in selecting the most deserving among them whose background warrants assistance and whose character shows the passion to succeed. We provide values formation that will equip the OSYs with some edge in work attitude that will benefit their employers. 

Our challenge is to invite more private-sector companies to partner with us by giving OSYs a chance and hiring them.  Not only do they provide an opportunity for these youths to earn, but also obtain for themselves a source of motivated and trainable employees.

We are grateful to our partners — companies who have joined the program by hiring the OSYs and giving them a chance to succeed. Some mentioned that they will hire people, anyway, so why not give a chance to those most in need? We thank the likes of French Baker, PR Gaz, Mekeni, RFM, Kettle Korn, Puregold, Shopwise, Shell, Bibingkinitan, and SM Supermarket, among others.  There are many more helping and we still invite more companies to be a part of our program to help improve the lives of our OSYs.

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