WV youths avail of PGMA educational assistance program
Around fifty (50) youth in Western Visayas will benefit from the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo-Educational Assistance Program (PGMA-EAP) being undertaken by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Secretary Esperanza I. Cabral of the DSWD said that there are 350 high school students who are beneficiaries of the educational assistance which will continue until 2010.
President Arroyo has allocated some P5.5 million from the President's Social Fund to finance the PGMA-EAP which according Secretary Esperanza I. Cabral of the DSWD, there are 350 high school students who are beneficiaries of the educational assistance which will continue until 2010.
The student-beneficiaries are: 100 from Payatas, Quezon City and the 250 will come from Regions V (Bicol), VI (Western Visayas), VIII (Eastern Visayas) and IX (Western Mindanao or Zamboanga Peninsula).
For Western Visayas, DSWD VI Regional Information Officer May R. Castillo said that of the 50 recipients, nine (9) will come from Iloilo City; Antique-15; Roxas City- 10; Capiz 15; and San Carlos- 1.
Secretary Cabral thanked President Arroyo for her support emphasizing that the funding support will afford poor but deserving youth to continue their education.
She explained that the beneficiaries from Region VI, VIII and IX were chosen because of the highest reported number of out-of-school-youth, Region V for being most affected by the typhoons that hit the Bicol Region last year, while the educational assistance of the Payatas children, on the other hand, is part of the continuing commitment of the President to help victims of the trash-slide tragedy last July 10, 2001.
Under the PGMA-EAP, each high school student is given P1,000 monthly allowance for the 10-month school year. The amount covers school fees, transportation, books and other miscellaneous expenses. The allowances will be released in four tranches at P2,500.00 each tranche, the DSWD press report said.
(T.Villavert/PIA)