Former Street Kids Earn Cookery Skills

Young men from CCT's residential school proudly show their cookery course certificates. 

Twelve of the young men cared for by the Center for Community Transformation (CCT) at its residential school in Magdalena, Laguna have gained cookery skills after attending a Bayan Academy course.They also passed the related competency assessment of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), earning national certification 2.

"What a blessing this is," enthused Ruth Callanta, CCT president and founder, after the graduation ceremony. "Who would have thought that these boys, who just a few years ago lived on the street, can now prepare and cook several international dishes!Nothing is impossible if you believe in God," she added, reflecting on the transformation undergone by the young men.

The cookery course is part of Bayan Academy's Entreprenuership Education for Community Development program sponsored by J.P. Morgan and held in partnership with TESDA and CCT. The intention of this program, according to the Bayan website, is that trainees armed with both a technical vocation and business management knowledge become 'technopreneurs' fully equipped to establish their own income and employment generating enterprise.

The young men learned cold kitchen fundamentals such as the preparation and production of sandwiches and salads, and hot kitchen recipes such as soups and main dishes. Among the main dishes they can now make are risotto and paella. They also learned how to make pastries and desserts such as cream puffs, baklava, and mousse.

According to Arthur Aguinaldo of Bayan Academy, the TESDA national certificate 2 that each of the young men earned is a plus point for future employment because it is recognized by local and international employers and  is the same certificate also sought by graduates of high-end culinary schools.

Ruth Callanta, CCT president and founder, signs
certificates while two happy graduates look on. 

CCT TDI Holds Second Commencement Rites

Forty young men recently graduated from TDI’s building construction and maintenance course, and 79 others were recognized for completing study hours and requirements for some of the subjects (masonry, plumbing, electrical installation and maintenance, and carpentry) composing the two-year course.

Eleazar Palma, son of a banana vendor from Davao, gave a speech on behalf of all the graduates speaking of dreams coming true.  He received awards for leadership, diligence and responsibility.  

How to Get to the CCT TDI Magdalena Campus from Manila

From the South Luzon Expressway: 

Leave the expressway at the Calamba exit.  Drive along Real Road then turn right at the Calamba national highway. Drive along this highway  passing through the towns of  Los Banos, Bay, Victoria, Pila, Sta. Cruz, and Pagsanjan.  About 1 ½ kilometres past the Pagsanjan welcome arch you will cross a small bridge after which stands an Iglesia ni Cristo church building on the left.  Turn right across from this church and drive straight ahead for the next four kilometres.  When you get to the unpaved portion (landmark: Von Welt gate) the campus will be about 200 meters away.  After a small paved portion and more rough road, watch for the CCT TDI wooden gate on the left.   

Note: If for some reason you miss the iron welcome arch and come to the stone welcome arch, simply turn around.  The Iglesia ni Cristo church will be on your right.  Turn left on the street across from the building and follow the rest of the directions above.  

TEE Attendees Visit Magdalena Campus

Participants in Transformative Economic Empowerment (TEE), an international training session for micro finance workers, visited the Magdalena campus of the Training and Development Institute (TDI) of the Center for Community Transformation (CCT) to get an overview and feel of CCT’s ministry among out-of-school youth and unemployed or underemployed males.  TEE is a joint activity of CCT and the Ka-Partner network, a consortium of US-based organizations ministering to the poor. 

 The TDI campus in Magdalena, Laguna offers a two-year vocational / technical course called Building Construction and  Maintenance with competencies in electrical installation and maintenance, masonry, rough carpentry, and plumbing.  It is also a boarding school for a second set of students – male, former street dwellers between the ages of 10 and 19.  (The boarding school for former street dwellers is being overseen by the Visions of Hope Foundation, which, along with TDI, is a member of the CCT Group of Ministries.)

Ruth Callanta, CCT founder and president, said the training session allows the sharing of CCT’s best practices and stories,  benefiting the poor of other nations. The TEE attendees were from Sri Lanka, Peru, India, Moldova, Zambia, Kenya, Thailand, Uganda, and the US. The main theme of this gathering was leadership and vision, and spiritual integration in micro finance. Speakers included CCT Chairman Bertram Lim, Ruth Callanta, and social anthropologists Dr. Melba Maggay and Dr. Miriam Adeney.   

The founding members of the Ka Partner network are endPoverty, Five Talents, Hope International, and Peer Servants. 

After viewing a presentation about programs and services offered at the campus, listening to the testimony of one  of the students, and touring the buildings, many of the guests enjoyed some shooting practice with members of the campus soccer team. 

The main venue of the training session was the Tagaytay Retreat and Training Center in Tagaytay City.   

Quezon City Men Graduate from CTDI, Receive TESDA Certification

Twenty-six men from Bagong Silangan, Payatas, Commonwealth, and Batasan in Quezon City recently graduated from a special short-term course on carpentry and masonry  at the CCT Training and Development Institute, Magdalena, Laguna campus.  Except for two, the men  passed assessment tests given by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, have received certification from the agency, and now have a better chance for employment.

The men are  husbands, sons, nephews, and in-laws of CCT micro finance community partners.

Graduation day, held in Bagong Silangan,  was a much-awaited and joyful event for the men and their families since many of them had never completed high school or grade school.

The course was run in partnership with the Wholistic Transformation Resource Center.  A second group of 30 men will start similar training this month.

TDI Students Have Jobs on US Embassy Grounds

TDI students wait for their turn to be interviewed by
Engr. Rafael Ian Ilagan, building construction contractor. 

Tyron Sarmiento (seated, in white shirt) marketing officer for the
 Covenant Community Service Cooperative joins the pre-service
interviews. 

The students try on new safety shoes and reflective vest
a few days before they start work. 

Twelve students at the CCT Training and Development Institute-Magdalena Campus have been blessed with a contract that will have them working  at the US embassy from November 2012 to March 2013.  Five electrical maintenance students and seven plumbing students – who simply needed a place where they could get on-the-job training – got full paying jobs when they were hired by a building contractor who has a construction project on the US embassy grounds in Manila. 

After March they will go back to TDI to complete the rest of their one-year building maintenance course
which includes masonry and carpentry. 

The TDI curriculum provides its students  with the basic knowledge, practices, techniques, and skills they need to succeed in a career in building maintenance and combines this with several months of on-the-job training. 

The young men are sons of micro entrepreneurs  receiving micro finance assistance from CCT's Savings and Credit Cooperative. Many of them could have spent years being unskilled and jobless but with God’s intervention in their lives they have fresh hope not just for themselves but for their families too.