Enabling displaced workers to restart and rise again through OFW RISE

More than 327,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) displaced from their jobs abroad have the opportunity to rebuild their lives at home.

The OFW Re-Integration through Skills and Entrepreneurship Program or OFW RISE is a joint program of Coca-Cola Philippines, Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration (OWWA) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and the Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC), an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). It aims to provide repatriated OFWs the option to become micro-entrepreneurs upon returning to their hometowns.

Finding their way home

DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III shared that the OFW RISE Program will enable displaced overseas Filipinos to sustain their livelihood as the government remains firmly committed to the productive reintegration of OFW returnees into the country.

According to a survey conducted by DOLE-National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO), 60% of displaced OFWs dream of establishing a business when they return home. The top business opportunities they have in mind are sari-sari stores, bigasan, water refilling stations, food stores or carinderias, meat processing, farming, and livestock raising. The agency added that more than 327,000 OFWs have returned to their respective provinces.

“The pandemic should not have to spell the end of our OFW’s dreams. Through the OFW RISE Program, we will continue to keep their dreams alive so they can keep thriving and providing for their families,” said Coca-Cola Philippines Public Affairs, Communications, and Sustainability director Jonah de Lumen-Pernia.

Empowering OFWs to rise again through learning

The RISE Program gives OFWs access to web-based training on basic entrepreneurship and business idea development, supported by practical business coaching as well as establishing linkages to livelihood assistance and other microfinancing programs.

Coca-Cola Philippines Public Affairs and Sustainability manager Joy Munsayac-Cacal said the participating overseas Filipinos will experience the whole entrepreneurial cycle from idea generation to incubation and implementation and access to livelihood support. She noted that some OFWs already have business ideas, but they don't know how to turn these ideas into an economically viable business.

“Under OFW RISE, they will learn how to prepare their own business plan and will have the opportunity to access possible livelihood grants and micro-finance loans through OWWA, DTI, and other microfinance institutions, so that they can start their own business successfully,” Munsayac-Cacal said.

Designed in an edutainment format, the digital course runs for just four hours and can be accessed through the TESDA online learning platform using gadgets that can connect to the internet. The online course is easy to follow and understand, and can be accessed while the OFWs are quarantined upon their arrival or upon their return to their home provinces. Actress Dimples Romana is featured in the recruitment and training videos for the program.

Knowing the challenges faced by OFWs, TESDA Secretary and Director General Isidro Lapeña said that the TESDA online learning platform will support and help OFWs rise from the pandemic and develop their own business plans. 

Making dreams happen

Among the business opportunities that will open up to repatriated overseas Filipinos is becoming a Coca-Cola partner as distributors, wholesalers, or resellers of its beverage products under the OFW RISE program’s complementary project, Balik Pinas.

In its 108 years presence in the Philippines, Coca-Cola has always been there to support micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), especially OFWs, as it believes that with proper access to training and resources, these displaced overseas Filipinos will succeed and rise again.

PTTC OIC executive director Nelly Nita Dillera noted that returning OFWs can also aspire to conquer the international arena given their knowledge of the country where they came from, providing them an immediate target market abroad.

For business ideas that need bigger capital, PTTC, as the DTI’s delivery arm of capacity building programs for MSME development, has also launched HEROES or Helping the Economy Recover thru OFW Enterprise Start-ups Program that taps the Small Business Corporation (SB Corp.) for financing.

With a P100 million loan facility, HEROES helps repatriated OFWs rebuild their lives through interest-free and collateral-free loans ranging from P10,000 to P100,000 to be used as working capital to start and sustain their own business.

Aside from HEROES, other government financing and grants and micro-financing programs for OFWs are the Balik-Pinas! Balik-Hanapbuhay! Tulong PUSO, DOLE-AKAP, ASA Philippines, Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Inc. (ASKI), and First Community Cooperative (FICCO). 

Balik-hanapbuhay para sa balikbayani

According to OWWA administrator Hans Leo Cacdac, the OFW RISE public-private partnership will definitely address the dreams and aspirations of our modern-day heroes as the program assists them towards productive reintegration with various business and livelihood opportunities. He added that the homecoming of our OFWs should be seen as their road to recovery from the crisis and the continued fulfillment of their dreams for their families.

With just a snap of the QR code on flyers and banners placed at the NAIA terminals and quarantine hotels or wherever OFWs are expected to congregate, balikbayans can already learn about and apply for the OFW RISE program.

OFWs can register at https://cokeurl.com/ofwrise. They can also visit the OFW RISE Program Facebook page or contact Coca-Cola via email or 09772638213 for more details.

Editor’s Note: This article was provided by Coca-Cola Philippines.