Wives of Moro guerillas graduate from livelihood training

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – More than a hundred women, some of them wives of Moro guerillas, graduated Tuesday from a skills and livelihood training here that imparted on them knowledge on alternative livelihood that can generate extra money needed to sustain their families.

The training, held at the Grand Rio Hotel here and participated by women from different towns in the first district of Maguindanao, was a common initiative of the office of Rep. Sandra Sema, Menardo Nosca of the Philippine TV show Knowledge Channel, and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DAF-ARMM).

The participants trained on production of detergents and preservation of ready-to-sell food, such as fish and squid balls, that can be marketed even in their respective villages.

The training was bankrolled by the office of Sema, whose socio-economic projects, mostly, were designed to complement the government’s peace overtures with local sectors in the first district of Maguindanao.

Kally Dimalen, a senior technical staff of the DAF-ARMM, said the training project was essential to the efforts of the government to empower Maguindanao’s women sector, which suffered from the brunt of previous armed conflicts in the province.

The DAF-ARMM helped facilitate the skills training on Sema’s orders.

Sema said her staff are also formulating plans on how to help the trainees market their products outside of their towns.

Sema said the training, which initially involved only more than a hundred participants, was a “pilot and thesis initiative,” as a gauge for further expansion of the livelihood projects of her office.

“Empowering the women sector in Maguindanao is very important. The women comprise a big part of our population and mothers play a big role in building communities of peace-loving, productive people,” Sema said.

Sema said mothers that have extra earnings can help sustain the schooling of their children.

“If we give mothers education, employment and support, we are building a strong community,” Sema said.

A trainee, Sharifa Kapisah, said she did not realize until she underwent the skills and livelihood training that producing detergents is not just easy, but can also be a source of income as well.

“We also have so much farm products in our surroundings that we can preserve and sell to the markets,” Amirah Musib, whose spouse is a member of the Moro National Liberation Front, seconded in Filipino.

Some of the trainees were either relatives or wives of guerillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Most towns in the first district of Maguindanao are common bastions of the MNLF and the MILF.

Some of the trainees are from the towns of Parang and surrounding areas, where the MILF has several government-acknowledged enclaves.