Sewing machines donated for Marawi livelihood program

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines — The Philippine Business for Social Progress on Thursday gave out 50 sewing machines in support of livelihood initiatives for conflict-stricken residents of Marawi City.

Rey Laguda, executive director of PBSP, turned over the sewing machines to Lanao del Sur Gov. Soraya Bedjoria Alonto-Adiong during a simple rite in Marawi City.

The sewing machines shall be distributed to beneficiaries who have just been trained by the Provincial Technology and Livelihood Center.

The center operates under the ministerial control of the provincial governor.

It has been providing livelihood technology to marginalized sectors in all 39 towns in Lanao del Sur and to residents of Marawi City, the provincial capital.

Most of the beneficiaries of the sewing machines donated by the PBSP are Marawi City residents whose houses were destroyed during the May 23 to Oct. 16, 2017 hostilities in the area between misguided Islamic militants and government forces.

Alonto-Adiong said the donated sewing machines will hasten the recovery of beneficiaries from the five-month siege of Marawi City by Islamic State-inspired members of the Maute and Abu Sayyaf terror groups.

The conflict displaced some 300,000 villagers, resulted in the deaths of about a thousand, more than a hundred of them soldiers and policemen, and left dozens of historic, centuries-old Maranao enclaves in ruins.

Meanwhile, the office of Alonto-Adiong continued on Thursday with its distribution of rice donated by a Buddhist religious group in Taiwan to evacuees from Marawi City temporarily residing in Saguiran, Lanao del Sur.

The rice donation from Taiwan’s Buddhist community arrived in Marawi City almost two months ago.

Thousands had been supplied with rice by the provincial government in dispersal activities in different Lanao del Sur towns early on.

Salma Jayne Tamano, Lanao del Sur’s provincial information officer, said 1,837 internally-displaced people received rice rations during the provincial government’s distribution activity in Saguiaran town.