Today, as a result of the blended mode meeting between Team Aldersgate College Inc. and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples’ Commission (NCIP) Regional Office 04, with other partners who participated via Zoom, a Memorandum of Understanding between the two organizations, for specific partnerships in the areas of Research and Extension for Development has been agreed upon.
Under the initiative of NCIP R04b Director Mary Grace T. Pascua, CESO II, the agency has established a Non-formal Education Program dubbed IPRA Academy which intends to provide much-needed seminars and training, and other interventions for IP youth and women, families, and communities, to be able to build their competence in various fields of endeavor such as, but not limited to leadership and governance, enterprise development, business & financial literacy, project planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, etc.
According to Director Pascua, while the RO4B IPRA Academy has run for a while now, she fully believes that Team AC Inc. shall be a great help to her agency in providing the appropriate response by an academic partner which may be able to provide the cadre of technical experts from the relevant formal academic programs to ensure the long-term purposive implementation of the IPRA Academy interventions via strategic term extension programs inclusive of training services, mentoring and coaching sessions, among others, via online mode.
Team AC Inc. may also explore the opportunity to provide research technical writers and data analysts, and to collaborate with NCIP field personnel on the ground in transforming data into meaningful information, research reports, and publications.
Moreover, the expertise of AC alumni and personnel, especially those in the field of geodetic engineering and/or surveying, and Information Technology shall also be explored in light of the need to engage IP communities in training and implementation of geotagging training and fieldwork activities for boundary mapping of IP communities.
Director Pascua also mentioned engaging IP communities who are receiving royalties from operational mining companies as the beneficiaries of the forthcoming AC extension program via online mode, because, according to her, she would like the beneficiaries to be able to work well together as much as possible in harnessing the windfall of resources for long term impact, instead of being the cause of competition and conflicts over mining community benefits.
The Research and Extension Directors of Team AC Inc. have been requested by RD Pascua to forward to her office the template for the Memorandum of Understanding for review and clearance by her Legal Team, towards the inking of a partnership accord, at the soonest possible time.
Joining the President were Advisory Board member Engr. Josephine P. Jasmin, VP for Admin, Dr. Divina Gracia B. Apolonio, VP for Academics, VP for Finance Carolyn A. Amaranto, Research Director Daton Jonathan B. Palitayan, and GS Adjunct Professor Dr. Bernard Balangatan.