125 students in conflict-prone areas receive gifts from DOLE

SAN JOSE, Antique – Grade school and high school students from two far-flung barangays in the municipalities of Valderrama and San Remigio, Antique were recipients of the gift-giving activity of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Fifty grade school students from Pandanan Elementary School in the municipality of Valderrama, and 50 students from Osorio, San Remigio (including 25 school students from Osorio National High School) received school supplies such as ball pens, papers, crayons, sharpeners, bond papers and other school materials from DOLE.

The recipients all belong to indigent families whose parents constantly struggle to provide for their children’s daily needs, much more send them to school.

They are residing in conflict-prone and vulnerable areas where access to the government’s programs, projects and services is quite hard.

Barangays Osorio in San Remigio and Barangay Pandanan in Valderrama, Antique are located in remote, inaccessible and mountainous areas where residents are mostly farm laborers and seasonal workers, and are susceptible to insurgency.

The gift-giving activity is DOLE’s expression of support of Executive Order No. 70 which aims to attain inclusive and sustainable peace through intensified development and peace-building initiatives in conflict-affected and-vulnerable communities.

DOLE aims to inspire and motivate children to continue their formal education despite the poverty and conflict surrounding them. It also aims to discourage parents from joining in the armed conflict.