News Release

Self-Reliance Hastens Rehabilitation of Lives

Despite the devastation brought by Typhoon Yolanda, families living in areas on the path of the typhoon made conscious, active effort to lift their lives and provide for their families.  Family members availed of the different programs and projects provided by LDS Charities and Self-Reliance Services of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

1,748 students, aged 18-65 years old,  from Tacloban, Bacolod, Iloilo and Cebu  enrolled in various TESDA programs earning them the necessary certifications for employment or to start their business. 

President Thomas S. Monson taught that self-reliance—“the ability, commitment, and effort to provide the necessities of life for self and family” —is an essential element of temporal and spiritual well-being.

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160 Dressmaking graduates in pink and graduates of Commercial Cooking and Bakery and Pastry in white beamed with pride as they received their National Certification 2 (NC2) on October 27, 2014.  Some of these graduates lost husbands, children, siblings and parents.  The certified dressmaker sewed the pink uniform themselves.  Local priesthood leaders, the Self-Reliance team on the ground and the Technical Skills Development Authority (TESDA) worked together to bring this opportunity to the people. 

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Cookery students and typhoon Yolanda survivors found jobs in the school where they enrolled.  Lani Aberia and Joselyn Pepito from Cookery Class of June 2014 through the Perpetual Education Fund learned the skill quickly and showed employability qualities that made the school decide to hire them as Cookery teachers 3 weeks before their graduation. Another Dressmaking student, Eva Maureen Velasco, was hired to teach dressmaking three weeks prior to her graduation.

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Roger Ugmad (in red), 44 years old, formerly an unemployed teacher was hired by TESDA to teach Electrical Installation and Maintenance after being certified with NC2 certification.  He had electrical experience before but didn’t have government certification.

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620 hardworking and skillful graduates of Basic Carpentry were hired by Catholic relief Services (CRS), Word Vision, the National Housing Authority (NHA) and private contractors to help in the many housing projects mushrooming all over Tacloban.  They belong to the team that built the first 3,210 shelters in 3 months after Yolanda barreled through Tacloban, Carigara, Tolosa, Ormoc and Samar.

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Church leaders present materials used by Self-Reliance Services to TESDA Regional Director Cleta Omega during a visit to her office. (From left to right: Sister Mae Aban and Tacloban Stake President Ricardo Aban, Director Omega, Elder Bowen who is a member of the Area Presidency, Sister Bowen, Bishop Causse of the Presiding Bishopric, Sister Causse, SRS Manager Tony San Gabriel and Project Manager Ronald Aban.

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