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Legazpi City: In an effort to alleviate the plight of
typhoon ravaged communities in Albay, the Department of Science in
Technology in Bicol and the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and
Professionals, a nongovernmental organization, combined their
efforts in providing livelihood assistance to some 12,000 thousand
people displaced by Supertyphoon Reming last year.
DOST officer Jacinto Alexis
Elegado said the beneficiaries of these five-year programs are the
2,000 families or 12,000 people temporarily staying at various
evacuation centers and shelters in the municipalities of Daraga,
Camalig, Guinobatan, Sto. Domingo and Lecaspi City, the hardest hit
areas in the province.
Elegado said that at least 12 new
technologies costing about P9.6 million would be introduced to
affected families.
The affected communities will be
trained in handloom weaving and producing exportable items whose
marketing would be channeled through PhilExport and the DOST
regional offices.
The government agency’s
intervention projects include candles and floor wax making; bamboo
processing and preservation; high pressure sap displacement and
densification of coconut trunks, production of functional and
novelty materials from bamboo and coco wood; bleaching and dyeing of
indigenous fibers from nonwood forest products, handloom weaving,
production of house wares, and shell crafts.
Production of wood-tiles from
diseased coconut trees, ferrocement technology for water tanks,
fiber-concrete roof tiles, low-cost concrete housing materials and
intercropping technologies.
The major raw material
specifically abaca will be sourced out from adjoining provinces of
Catanduanes, Camarines Sur, Camrines Norte Sorsogon, Quezon
province and Mimaropa areas while Albay is still recovering from the
damage of recent natural calamities.
Other raw materials will be used
are caragumoy, agas, raffia, bankuan, buri, tiger grass, banana leaf
sheaths, pandan and other vines.
The DOST official said that the
BCBP will infuse P5.10-million financial assistance to this project.
The BCBP is a nongovernmental organization that supports
depressed communities with their mission of bringing Christ into the
business milieu.
--Rhaydz B. Barcia
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