Hulas batch 14 completes skills training, youth formation courses

The two-month Hulas (training) program on carpentry, sewing, herbal making, and youth formation was concluded last July. Families of all the 19 participants who came from Barangay Sila-e, Mapulo, Nabawang, St. Peter, Miaray, and Sitio Bendum attended the closing program or aldaw hu kalampusan.

During the closing program, finished products created by the group of young women were presented through an exhibit at the livelihood center. There were bed covers, pillow cases, pot holders, shorts, and rugs. Ointments and lagundi and ginger syrup  that were done during the herbal-medicine course are also displayed.

The participants then accompanied their family to the Dalepaan 4 to show the three extension rooms where high school students will stay. These rooms were constructed by the young Hulas men.

This Hulas program aims to equip participants from indigenous communites with technical skills such as civil works that they can use and share when they go back to their respective communities.

Further, the knowledge, self-realization and experience gained during the formative sessions are hoped to contribute to participants’s holistic personal growth and even strengthen their cultural identity and their leadership potential as being part of the indigenous youth in Upper Pulangi.

This year’s Hulas program focuses on hands-on carpentry, sewing, and herbal making training, with formative sessions on culture of peace, leadership, gender roles, and psycho-spiritual growth. The young men attended the carpentry training while the young women attended the sewing and herbal making training.  –May Anne Krissanta Caduyac