Manila: An organisation plans to provide livelihood training and seed capital for repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFW) so that they can put up their own business and be financially independent.
Congressman Cresente Paez, who represents the co-operatives sector at the House of Representatives, said his organisation will help OFWs repatriated back to the country by providing them with capital so they can put up their own small and medium enterprises for their livelihood.
"The integration of the OFWs with the community is very important. The co-perative enterprise is one very viable solution to poverty," Paez said.
"Our plan is to give them training on how to put up their own co-operatives so that they will become owners and managers of their own businesses," he said.
He added OFWs, whether they had chosen to return or were forcibly sent back, should be encouraged to become part of the co-operative movement.
Paez represents the National Confederation of Co-operatives (NATCCO) in Congress. The group was formed by credit union pioneers.
"These leaders believed in self-help and in the idea that people in poverty need to create opportunities for themselves to improve their economic well-being," its website says.
Paez, who recently visited Saudi Arabia as part of a four-man House contingent, also sought the immediate repatriation of Filipinos imprisoned in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar. The OFW group, Migrante International, had earlier reported more than 3,000 Filipino migrant workers and their families had sought refuge in temporary shelters.
