ILIGAN CITY —– The United States Agency International Development (USAID) and Plan International granted on Thursday (October 29), business recovery grants to the two Moro youth groups in Lanao del Sur and Marawi City, as part of the celebration of the Philippine Coffee Month.
The turn-over of the livelihood package, worth 260 thousand pesos, is part of the Marawi Response Project (MRP) that started during the Marawi siege in 2017.
It highlighted the culmination of the Business Month Celebration in Iligan City and was featured in the launching of the “Kapehan sa Iligan Chamber”, an online forum of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation of Iligan, Inc. (CCIFII).
The two groups, Aqilah, and the Alog Youth Association requested grant assistance on coffee production which was approved by the MRP according to Lauro Ilagan, USAID Plan MRP, Economic Development Leader.
The Aqila, whose project is called Cup of Hope, is a group of young social entrepreneurs based in Mindanao State University (MSU) Marawi, that sells coffee while offering professional pro-bono counseling to students and other affected psychologically by the Marawi siege.
The group is a mix of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the most affected area (MAA) and host community members.
“They are in the process of re-investing profits to build a standalone coffee shop in the city of Marawi,” said Ilagan.
The other group, Alog Youth Organization, is a group of 20 students, and young professionals will cook and package coffee to revive traditional coffee mixes such as coffee-ginger, coffee-turmeric, and other mixes.
Ilagan said this youth organization is also composed of IDPs and host community members who will produce and package native ground coffee and capitalizing on existing local coffee farmers who will benefit from the project.
It is based in the town of Tubaran in Lanao del Sur where one of the prominent leaders of Dawlah Islamiya-Lanao, Owayda Benito Marohombsar, was killed in an encounter in March 2019.
Also known as Abu Dar, Marohombsar was the remaining leader of the ISIS-inspired Maute group who escaped from the Marawi battle zone during the siege in 2017.
Mohammad Modiaba, the leader of Alog Youth Organization, said they are not doing it for themselves but to help the coffee farmers in their community and the nearby municipalities whose residents are into coffee farming.
“We are going to buy coffees from farmers, not only from our municipality but also in Lumbatan, Butig, Lumbaca Unayan, and Sultan Dumalondong. We are the one to package and sell it. The National Coffee Association committed to helping us,” Modiaba said.
“This is a big help especially to the out-of-school youth in the community because we will hire them as workers. We are not thinking that it is the group members who will benefit but it is the youth and the people in the community,” he added.
The MRP is a 25-million US dollar worth four-year cooperative agreement with Plan International that supports the economic recovery of communities in Lanao provinces that were directly impacted by the 2017 violent conflict in Marawi City.
Twenty-two youth groups from Marawi City and Lanao del Sur were granted livelihood package.
Aside from the youth group, the MRP also supports the capacity-building of local businesses, including training in business administration, financial management, market development, and specialized skills that are critical in sustaining and growing the businesses and generating employment.
“This activity is one of several avenues that MRP supports to help the local business community,” Ilagan said.- Divina Suson
