CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (PIA)--Members of the Out-of-School Youth Development Alliance of Cagayan de Oro City met with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), April 13, and discussed mechanisms on how to strengthen services to address the issues of out-of-school youth.

USAID Director for Education, Dr. Thomas LeBlanc, shared that in the United States, the unemployment rate has dropped to less than 4%, which is the lowest recorded in many decades.

"What has happened is that with COVID, everybody is staying at home, and then people say, ‘You know, I don’t have to stay in the office all the time.' A lot of people quit their jobs, and a lot of people retired. But then it happened that there was a big surge of people wanting to work, but not the way we used to work. A lot of people are working from home, and a lot of people are using the Internet," he shared.

Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando A. Uy, through his representative, City Administrator Lawyer Roy Hilario Raagas, expressed his support for the collaboration between the city and USAID.

"The City Government of Cagayan de Oro is committed to providing our youth with the necessary resources and opportunities to thrive and succeed in their personal and professional lives. I recognize the importance of investing in our youth and ensuring that they have access to quality education and educational programs," the mayor said.

The mayor announced that the city government will be focusing on youth programming and mainstreaming programs to provide regular support to out-of-school youth development programs. He said that this support includes the allocation of a significant portion of resources for these plans and programs.

Prior to stating the message on behalf of the city mayor, City Administrator and lawyer Roy Hilario Raagas shared that Cagayan de Oro City was already a recipient of assistance from USAID, even 35 years ago. One of the projects is the Regional and City Development Program.

"I remember at that time, one of the only two reliable service vehicles then was the Winnie’s jeep that was given by the USAID and part of the assistance; it never left us when we were in the field, and even when we went to remote areas, it was so reliable that we could always get back to the City Hall in the afternoon. Can you just imagine how the roads in the hinterlands were?" Raagas said.

Further discussion during the meeting included continuous collaboration on different programs of USAID, such as services addressing the most pressing issue lately, according to LeBlanc, which is climate change. (IJBD/PIA-10)