Expanded Students’ Grants-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA)  grantees pledged support to the advocacy of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to institutionalize Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. These ESGP-PA grantees who are also Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries are the priorities of the DSWD for educational grant for deserving and academically excellent college students.

During their recently held General Youth Camp in Dagupan City, Pangasinan, they actively participated in the Call to Action for CCT Institutionalization. They took oath to defend the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

137 graduating students from the five partner State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) namely Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU), Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU), University of Northern Philippines (UNP), Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College (ISPSC), and North Luzon Philippines State Colleges (NLPSC) attended the ESGP-PA General Youth Camp.

The grantees were also given a lecture on Young Adults Fertility And Sexuality Study 4 by the Information Officer I of the Commission on Population Region 1, Ms. Maria Christina F. Martinez, to respond to teenage pregnancy issues involving the ESGP-PA students.

DSWD staff facilitated team building activities on the different roles and expectations of each of the students in their community, family, and school in the form of role play, song, poem, and the like. Tips on becoming confident, overcoming timidness, and developing self-esteem were also discussed.

All the grantees were challenged as they enjoyed the Amazing Race with different stations such as Slot Machine, The Bottle, The Paper Walk, and The Mind Game heading to the Finish Line.

The General Youth Camp aimed to identify and express the participants’ needs and set goals relative to how they see themselves in the future; clarify, resolve, and properly orient them on areas or concerns along Program implementation; develop and enhance their problem solving capability; build, renew, and strengthen their relationship                                                                                                 and camaraderie with each other. (by: Jaesem Ryan A. Gaces, Information Officer II/Pantawid Pamilya with reports from Arlem Kenneth R. Areola, ESGP-PA Focal)