CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (PIA)--Some 50 youth beneficiaries participated during the mangrove conservation and clean-up drive organized by USAID Opportunity 2.0 and Out-of-School Youth Development Alliance (OSYDA), March 9 at Barangay Bonbon, here.

The activity is part of the civic engagement activities developed for the beneficiaries of USAID O2. The event was attended by City Mayor Oscar Moreno, USAID Mission Director for Asia-Pacific and Mongolia Mr. Ryan Washburn, USAID Opportunity 2.0 Chief of Party Dr. David Hall, Educational Development Center officials, and members of OSYDA.

Following the mangrove planting, an interaction took place together with the youth beneficiaries, as well as orientation on the e-mobile app developed by University of Science and Technology of the Southern Philippines (USTP)-Extension Services Office headed by Dr. Maria Teresa Fajardo. This e-mobile app is for profiling and tracking of youth in Cagayan de Oro City. In his part, Mr. Washburn thanked USTP for the application.

“It’s a comprehensive system for tracking progress,” he said, adding that during the pandemic, people, especially the young ones, can get lost. They drop out of school and end up invisible. The app can help to track their progress and make sure that they maintain a network.

Thereafter, Oro Youth Development Office Head JP Santos as well held a briefing on the efforts of OSYDA and O2 activities.

“Basically, this was instituted by an executive order signed by Mayor Moreno in 2020,” Santos said. 

He added that the EO aimed at converging representatives of different service providers, and national and local agencies to gauge opportunities for the out-of-school youth.

“Essentially, what we are working on is we hope to sustain these. We have different efforts in sustaining these things and one is of course to establish the Out-of-School Youth Development Alliance and ensure that there is vibrant youth representation,” he said.