Our impact, their voices
How second chances ignite learning, improve skills for indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples like Perlisa often have limited school access, which dampened her spirits to boost her family’s income until she took the chance to complete basic education and acquire new skills in food processing.
At that time, her reading and math skills needed some sharpening.
This was because she, just like her husband, was unable to finish primary school.
While she was able to enrol in one adult learning class to finish elementary school 30 years ago, it was interrupted when she gave birth to her youngest — the parent of the same child she looked after.
In short, even at 34 years of age, Perlisa was still unable to complete her primary education. A few decades later, she found that her days had become routine. With limited education, she did not see a lot of options to improve her family’s income.
She would wake up at 4:30 in the morning, prepare food, and started work on a farm in Tubungan, Iloilo, an isolated town populated by the Panay-Bukidnon, an indigenous peoples' group of which she was a member.
All day long, Perlisa planted fruits and crops such as avocado, sweet potato, taro, and squash. Her husband — a member of the same indigenous group — earned his keep by tending to the cows owned by her brothers.
The routine dampened her spirits.
"We woke up, we went to the farm to work, and then we slept at the end of the day," Perlisa said. "It was repetitive. There was nothing else to do at home and on the farm."
In 2022, just a year short of turning 60 years old, Perlisa learned of an opportunity to break the routine and have her second chance at completing basic education.
Town officials asked her to enroll as a student under the Department of Education (DepEd) alternative learning system (ALS) which she later ended up graduating from.
Besides allowing her to finish junior high school, the same class gave her training in a technical-vocational food processing course.
Perlisa, who also worked as a cook in Marikina when she was younger learned to process sweet potatoes (a root crop known locally as camote) and taros and turned them into dried snacks. Chunks of bananas and pineapples she turned into soft candy ("gummies"), she said.
Perlisa is proof that second chances at learning and acquiring new skills is a lifelong pursuit. It is one of the advocacies of the Skills for Prosperity (SfP), a programme funded by the UK government and implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the Philippines.
In 2022, the Programme partnered with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Tubungan local government to implement the project that Perlisa had just graduated from. Similarly, the project benefitted members of the Panay-Bukidnon, solo parents, women, and even some former combatants.
Recently, Perlisa was able to take another step to further bring out her potential. Together with fellow 24 members of the Panay-Bukidnon — who also happened to be her classmates in the ALS classes — Perlisa attended a two-day vocational guidance and coaching workshop in Iloilo City, also organized by the SfP.
The workshop provided participants with guides, tools, and advice regarding employment options and business opportunities available to lifelong learners like them.
They were asked to choose pictures from old magazines that resonated with them, cut them up, and paste them on illustration boards to make their own vision boards - a graphical representation, more or less, of their dreams and hopes.
While putting her vision board together, Perlisa came to realize that she wished to have her own small poultry farm so that she could have a stable supply of eggs.
"I want to make leche flan and possibly earn from it," she said, referring to the sweet local delicacy made from eggs.
However, Perlisa knows that that may take awhile. She needs to go back to farming and, with some perseverance in using her newly-acquired skills in food processing she may soon be able to set aside some cash for working capital.
But for the moment, Perlisa is just delighted and grateful that she was able to secure a government certification indicating that she was able to complete a course in making dried snacks from local root crops.
"During graduation, I showed my husband my diploma and asked him to hold and touch it," Perlisa said. "He then told me: 'Finally, we have a graduate of our own.'"