Established in 2002, People’s Initiative for Learning and Community Development (PILCD) is a non-profit organization that aims to contribute in the development and empowerment of marginalized communities and vulnerable groups through community education and social action.
It envisions a society where the right of all people to learn and to have equitable access to relevant and quality learning opportunities is realized; where people are enabled to understand and cope with the reality of their environment, and are empowered to define and transform their own destiny
PILCD strongly believes in the power of literacy and education as a tool to combat poverty and exclusion.
Our work is anchored from four development thrust: – Right to Education, Empowerment, Inclusion, and Sustainable Development.
PILCD is a recipient of the 2010 Grundtvig Award for projects outside Europe. Grundtvid Award is offered annually by the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA) to honor outstanding work in adult education.
Under the theme of Education for Social Inclusion, PILCD's Community-based Alternative Learning and Development Program bagged the 2010 Award for Projects Outside Europe.
PILCD's projects are featured in the following publications by Unesco Institute for Lifelong Learning Learning (UIL) and the Asia Pacific Cultural Center for UNESCO (ACCU):
Development Thrusts
Right to Education
As well as being a right in itself, the right to education is also an enabling right.
Education ‘creates the “voice” through which other rights can be claimed and protected’, and without education people lack the capacity to ‘to achieve valuable functionings as part of the living’.
If people have access to education they can develop the skills, capacity and confidence to secure other rights. Education gives people the ability to access information detailing the range of rights that they hold, and government’s obligations. It supports people to develop the communication skills to demand these rights, the confidence to speak in a variety of forums, and the ability to negotiate with a wide range of community leaders, government officials and other persons in authority who wield power.
Empowerment and Inclusion
Empowerment is a process and an outcome. It is a continuing process of building people’s capacities, uplifting their self-esteem and developing self-reliance among them. Through this, grassroots communities are able to analyze their situation, take control of community resources, utilize them for their own benefit, and make decisions affecting their lives.
Sustainable Development
Integral development is concerned with improving the different dimensions of community life – social, political, economic, environmental, and cultural. Its focus is to enhance people’s potential in directing their own development. Achieving integral development in the context of sustainable development implies improvement in the quality of life and standard of living with respect to the integrity of the environment and the interconnectedness between people and nature.
Project Areas
- Zambales Province
- Cordillera Administrative Region:
- Benguet and Baguio City
- Mt. Province
- Ifugao
- Kalinga
- Apayao
- Samar:
- Calbayog City
- Catbalogan City
