The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Antique provincial office marked Women’s Month through the distribution of livelihood assistance to mostly women beneficiaries.

DOLE Antique Provincial Director Carmela Abellar said in a media interview Tuesday that 40 women received the Integrated Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (DILEEP) on Monday, out of the 57 beneficiaries.

“We had the livelihood distribution to mostly women as part of honoring them,” she said.

She said women beneficiaries were chosen for they were not given equal opportunity in the past. “The livelihood assistance is in order to empower also the women,” Abellar said.

She said the women beneficiaries, who also had been affected during the lockdown of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), have the potential to grow their businesses even just in their own homes.

DOLE Antique, with the San Jose Multi-Purpose Cooperative (SJMPC) as a proponent, distributed PHP20,000 worth of rice and a weighing scale, which they could use in their rice retailing project.

“The SJMPC is the project proponent which will help us monitor the livelihood assistance given to the beneficiaries,” she said.

Meanwhile, Vonna Rose Tuding of Barangay Funda-Dalipe, one of the beneficiaries, said in an interview the livelihood assistance will help them during this pandemic.

“It could financially help us because we could sell the rice in our barangay,” she said.

She added that with their rice trading business in their barangay, residents no longer have to go to the public market in their town to buy rice. (PNA)