SAN PABLO CITY, Laguna – A total of 14 out-of-school youths (OSYs) are now tending their respective farms with their acquired skills and knowledge after successfully completing their three-phase “AcTIVE , “or Academic Technology Integration with Values Education program.
AcTIVE is under the auspices of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) Region IV-A that capacitates the youths so they could now tend their farms using ATI’s livelihood business kit.
The 14 OSYs from Quezon, Batangas and Laguna are members of 4H club (which stands for Head, Heart, Hand and Health) — an organization of sons and daughter of farmers who cannot afford to pursue a college education.
Roger D. Victoria II, Focal Person for 4H-AcTIVE program, told PNA on Wednesday that the program used to be managed by the ATI central office, “but Calabarzon decided to run it again and implemented an improved version that includes values formation.”
The program runs for five months and devised with three phases wherein the initial phase trains OSYs on the basics of farming for three months.
The second phase entails the students to return to their homes for more than a month, where “they can apply their learning to their respective farms,” said Victoria.
To complete the program, all students must take and pass the competency examination on Alternative Learning System (ALS) and the National Competency (NC) II on Organic Agriculture.
All graduates are subsequently given livelihood projects based on their needs. ATI IV-A monitors their farms’ progress thereafter, or for this batch “sometime middle of this year,” Victoria said.
Thee participating organizations in the program implementation include the YMCA-San Pablo City, responsible for the delivery of the Department of Education’s ALS program, financial literacy modules and values education; and program host ABF Integrated Farms and Agribusiness Center Inc.
Partner-implementers also graced the graduation rites on January 22.
The graduates who chose the organic hog raising packet are Anniel Acueza, Bryan Ardeza, Madilyn Sayno and Joimielle Morada from Laguna; and Joel Catibog from Batangas.
Graduates Arvin Caǹon of Laguna, and brothers Gerry and Wilson De Villa of Batangas wished to develop organic hog rasing, vegetables and vermicast production farm..
Joshua Corral, Marvin Entienza, Marvin Icaro and Renalyn Oderio (Laguna); Sherwin Libre and Jay Pascuhin of Alabat, Quezon., on the other hand, availed of the organic hog raising, vegetables and concoction production, chicken production, organic herbs and spices production, and chicken and vegetable production livelihood kits. (Gladys Pino/PNA)
