PRIORITY — Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Member of Parliament Abdullah Hashim delivers his message Wednesday, August 12 before the participants of the one-day capability building workshop for ‘transitioning combatants’ held at Jasmin’s Place in Pikit, Cotabato. (GALao with photo by Office of MP Abdullah Hashim, BTA Parliament)

COTABATO CITY — The Office of Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Member of the Parliament Abdullah Hashim in collaboration with Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim facilitated on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 a one-day ‘Capability Building Workshop for Transitioning Combatants’ held in Pikit, Cotabato.

In an interview, Hashim stressed one major part of his advocacy is ‘helping transitioning combatants to integrate into society and establish sustainable livelihoods’.

As part of his advocacy, Hashim said the workshop was organized to ascertain the individual needs of the participants so that proposed programs, projects, and activities (PPA’s) may be implemented as efficiently as possible.

“The participants were former inner guards of the late founding chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Salamat Hashim. They were organized and formed a cooperative to maintain good relationship with each other,” Hashim said.

Accordingly, the first part of the workshop was about self-identification. The participants were encouraged to share their goals and aspirations for themselves and their families. After that, they took some time to reflect on how they may attain these goals.

“The next part of the activity focused on identifying accessible resources and their potential market. The participants grouped themselves by area and brainstormed ideas. Later, they presented proposals on possible livelihood projects relevant to them in their respective localities. They also provided inputs on the problems and issues that they may encounter with their proposed projects,” Hashim said.

Hashim added they also had a discussion on the selection of possible projects. Through a majority vote from the participants, the decision was made to avail of livelihood projects by clusters. Each group finalized which of the projects they will avail and later presented their output to ascertain its productive capacity. There will be a monitoring team tasked to ensure that all projects are successful.

“The final part of the workshop focused on mapping out potential agencies that may provide funding in their selected projects. Organizations and agencies have been identified, such as non-government organizations (NGOs), national line agencies, and the different Ministries of the Bangsamoro government. The cooperative agreed to form committees to solicit possible funding support,” he said.

In his message, Hashim reminded everyone to be grateful to Allah for the opportunities and encouraged everyone to pray to Him that this endeavor may be blessed.

“I urge everyone to strengthen the solidarity and unity of the cooperative and foster understanding with one another,” Hashim emphasized.

Meanwhile, the activity carried the theme, “Bringing the Government to the Bangsamoro People”. (GALao with reports from the Office of MP Abdullah Hashim, BTA Parliament)