By Chito Chavez
The Quezon City government recently launched the “Shared Service Facility (SSF) Project’’ to help women entrepreneurs.
The project aims to provide equipment so as to encourage women to put up their own businesses and have a livelihood.
Quezon City Vice-Mayor Joy Belmonte (MARK BALMORES / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
In partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Samahan ng mga Pilipina para sa Reporma at Kaunlaran (SPARK), QC 5th District Congressman Alfred Vargas initiated the formation of the equipment sharing facility that will also provide free training, product development and other technical assistance to women entrepreneurs.
Vice-Mayor Joy Belmonte has supported the said program and underscored the importance of empowering women financially. She said that “economic incapability sometimes deprives women of getting out of oppressive relationships’’.
Belmonte noted that the oppressed women are unable to move out of abusive relationships due to financial constraints and lack of business or managerial skills that will provide them with a decent livelihood.
“Wala silang pagsasanay, wala silang puhunan, walang pangsuporta sa kanilang sarili para bumukod sa kanilang mga asawa kaya sila ay nagtitiis na lang (They do not have the training, they do not have the capital, they do not have the means to support themselves to escape the grasp of an abusive spouse),’’ said Belmonte.
"We are here to help them acquire all the technical skills that they need to be able to earn a living for themselves, by themselves without fear or without thinking that they need the assistance of anybody else," she added.
The SSF also aims to increase the women entrepreneurs' productivity so that they can accept bulk orders and penetrate new markets which will then result to an increase in income.
Twenty machines for sewing will be provided to women micro-entrepreneurs of Barangay Greater Lagro including edging machines, round cloth cutting machine, walking foot machines, and embroidery sewing machines among others.
Belmonte pledged to prioritize the formation of more equipment sharing facilities in the city.