Josie Alcantara, a 2006 graduate from the Philippines, held a training seminar on chocolate molding production and packaging to Globe McKay-Sheraton Village homeowners on June 13, 2007. Chocolate molding production is a microenterprise livelihood program of the low-income homeowners in this community. SIFAT Philippines, the Living for Jesus Ministries and the support of homeowners’ association president Willie Ibarreta made this training possible.

The goal of the training is to help women cope with the increasingly numerous responsibilities they face in everyday socioeconomic life. This microenterprise helps develop supplemental income, so the women are able to buy more nutritional food for their families and help provide for their children’s educational needs.

The project engaged the women in income generating activities. Since the homeowners are already an organized group, the SIFAT alumni are now assisting them to become self-governing and become independent from the project.

Ten housewives and 10 high school and college students attended the training and learned about basic and advanced chocolate molding, which are ideal for business all year for occasions such as birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Easter Sunday, Halloween, Christmas or as desserts. Marketing strategies are simply giving samples for tasting and showing pictures of the finished products neatly and attractively packaged with a price list on it. Josie emphasized the “three P’s”:  people, place and price in making the product cost. The ordered products should be delivered on time and following the specifications of the customers.

Josie Alcantara holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration and is certificated in hotel and restaurant management. She is a resource speaker giving lectures and hands-on training for culinary and food technology.

John Partor ’00, Ebenezer Browne ’05, Richard Vah ’06 and Elizabeth Tulay ’05 are Practicum graduates who returned to Liberia and are making a difference in their country. Read the following article about their latest accomplishment.

The Rev. John Partor, Pastor Ebenezer Browne, Pastor Richard Vah and Elizabeth Tulay organized a four-day sustainable agriculture seminar on July 2-5, 2007. Held at Duport Road Baptist Church in Monrovia, Liberia, Dr. Don and Lois Sobkovia led the workshops.

The Sobkovias have written a globally applicable book on sustainable agriculture. Sustainable Agriculture is designed to teach people from all background levels. Forty participants, mostly from churches and ministries of SIFAT alumni, attended the seminar. The topics covered included composting, bio-intensive gardening, animal husbandry and fish farming.

Bishop Dr. George M. Kiadili, one of the presidential candidates in the last Liberian election, helped distribute certificates. In his remarks to the graduates, Kiadili issued a challenge to use what they learned to improve the livelihood of their families and to continue giving this information to others. The graduates were commissioned to pass the training on to the rural parts of Liberia, where most people depend on farming and are unable to come to the city for training.

For more information about Practicum alumni, please contact Yollie Concepcion at concepciony@sifat.org.