Legazpi City- The Department of Social Welfare and Development(DSWD) Field Office V-Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) conducted a livelihood assessment to the families affected by Tropical Depression (TD) Usman in Tiwi Albay last January 16, 2019.

The Sustainable Livelihood Program(SLP) Albay Provincial Operation Office (POO) led the series of activities in response to the needs of the households in the evacuation center.

The livelihood assessment aims to provide augmentation, technical assistance and intervention along livelihood to the affected households in the different barangays devastated by TD Usman.

Based on the assessment conducted, there are 83 households from Barangay Maynonong and 6 Households from Barangay Naga that were identified engaging in weaving (handicraft). Out of the 89 identified households, there were 57 households with existing handloom to be transferred in the evacuation center.

The transfer of the handloom will be facilitated by the Local Government Unit (LGU) to a designated area allocated inside the school premises of Naga National High School.  Further, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) had committed to provide abaca fiber to the households in the evacuation centers as starter kits.

SLP also conducted an orientation on urban and bio-intensive gardening with the Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO) that provided 12 packs of okra, 22 packs of pechay and 22 packs of swamp cabbage. Moreover, the garden of the 13 evacuation rooms had started last January 11, 2019 placed in their designated areas identified by the School Principal.

Through the collaborative efforts and coordination of DSWD and different agencies, the identified program participants will be provided a capital through DSWD’s Seed Capital Fund (SCF) under SLP.

SCF is a capacity-building grant given to an eligible SLP participant belonging to an SLP Association. The grant is intended to support the establishment of a community-based credit and savings facility and to provide start-up or additional financial capital for participants who wish to engage in other income-generating projects. The qualified program participants will be given a minimum of Php 20,000 pesos depending on the assessment done.

To gain additional income, program participants continue their livelihood inside evacuation center.

Analyn Pontalba, 36, from Maynonong, Tiwi Albay chose to continue her livelihood inside evacuation center to augment and support her family needs. According to her, it is also her way of forgetting the tragic incident in her life brought by TD Usman.

Furthermore, the province of Camarines Sur will also conduct a massive livelihood assessment in areas affected by TD Usman.

SLP is a community-based capacity building program that aims to improve the socio-economic condition of the participants. It facilitates interventions that expand the livelihood asset base of the participants (human, social, physical, natural, and financial capital) so they may either have gainful employment or successfully manage a microenterprise. #PRNPOJ01/25/2019

Print this entry

The Department of Social Welfare and Development Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (DSWD Kalahi-CIDSS) launched the fourth cycle implementation in the municipalities of Talisay in Camarines Norte, Uson, Mandaon and San Jacinto in Masbate.

The program conducted the Municipal Orientation in Talisay, Uson, Mandaon and San Jacinto last January 25, 28, 29 and 31 respectively.

This orientation is part of the Social Preparation and Community Consultation Stage of the Community Empowerment Activity Cycle (CEAC).

It formalizes the engagement of the program through a signed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). The activity also discusses the technical and administrative requirements of the implementation.

“The orientation is very momentous because it creates awareness and acceptance on the program,” Regional Director Arnel Garcia said.

As part of the program’s objective to improve the local governance, the Local Government Units (LGUs) will take over the Cycle 4 implementation who will manage the conduct of CEAC and facilitation of community empowerment.

“The LGU-led program implementation will serve as an indicator that the Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach improves people’s engagement through a democratic and participatory process,” he added.

The orientation will also be conducted in Magarao, Camarines Sur on February 12, 2019. /ramsertan/

Print this entry

Riprap sub-project of Brgy. Ibayugan, Buhi, Camarines Sur

The Department of Social Welfare and Development Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (DSWD Kalahi-CIDSS) validated the extent of damages of sub-projects brought by Tropical Depression ‘Usman’ in Bicol Region.

Based on the data collected as of January 21, 2019, there are six (6) partially damaged sub-projects out of 51 funded sub-projects in Buhi and four (4) partially damaged sub-projects out of 37 funded sub-projects in Sagñay.

There are also three (3) partially damaged sub-projects out of 45 funded sub-projects recorded in Bula and one (1) partially damaged sub-project out of 38 funded sub-projects in Ocampo, Camarines Sur.

The damaged sub-projects will be endorsed to the Local Government Units and other National Government Agencies (NGAs) depending on the results identified during the assessment.

BENEFITED FROM THE SUB-PROJECTS

Despite damages incurred in community projects, the communities also benefited from their implemented projects during TD Usman particularly in Barangay Ibayugan in Buhi, Camarines Sur.

Their riprap sub-project with a project cost of Php 4,344,522.00 has protected at least 170 families from massive boulders and flood waters. It also prevented damages to their properties and livelihood.

According to Jade Albert Muni of Municipal Coordinating Team (MCT), the residents would have suffered from flooding and enormous boulders without the slope protection.

“Sa sobrang lakas ng mga gumugulong na mga bato, nadurog yung ibang parte ng riprap, pero pasalamat yung mga tao kasi kung wala po iyon, baha agad sila (Because of strong pressure from the rolling boulders, some parts of the riprap were destroyed. The residents are also grateful because, without their project, they would have experienced flooding,” Muni added.

Through Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach, the community was able to distinguish their problems and possible solutions by undertaking community-level research also known as Participatory Situational Analysis (PSA).

“Since the communities were given the opportunity to make informed decisions to address the needs identified by themselves, they were able to implement sub-projects based on the context of their localities,” Regional Director Arnel Garcia explained. /ramsertan/

Print this entry

Life is like a candle. Darkness enfolded a child when life hit him hard and lost any sight of the light at a young age.

Jose, not his real name, was a victim of inhospitable circumstances. His parents lived separately with his mother who shouldered the sole parental responsibility over four children in the family while his father sent them money to support them financially.

Moreover, he was confronted with a life changing event after his father’s death in 2009. His mother pulled the ends together by exploring alternative livelihood activities for their daily sustenance including the payment for their school expenses.

According to Jose, from being a household manager, his mom attended trainings in cosmetics and caregiving, hence, she worked as part-time on call beautician and caregiver thereafter.

In the absence of his mother, Jose’s eldest sibling replaced his mother. But according to him, it was not enough.

He admitted that they had more time to engage with their peers due to limited adult’s supervision.

Jose discovered the life without boundaries. A life where he can decide on his own without his parents’ reprimand.

Soon, Jose engaged with friends who introduced him to different vices.

“I cut classes. I learned how to smoke and drink alcohol while my older brother got into illegal drugs,” he said.

Jose became unstoppable. In 2015, Jose who was in third year high school decided to steal a motorcycle parked in his school because he wanted to have his own service; something that his mom cannot afford.

However, his world crumbled down when he was apprehended the same year. He violated the Anti-Fencing Law and was admitted at DSWD’s Regional Rehabilitation for Youth (RRCY) in Sorsogon City for his suspended sentence and directed him to undergo rehabilitation instead of full blown court trial.

After his three-year stay at RRCY, he was discharged out of the facility and was integrated to his family.

At RRCY, a residential institution that provides protection, care, treatment and rehabilitation to abused and exploited boys below 18 years of age, Jose received the following from DSWD: social services, home life services, educational services, health services, psychological services, spiritual enrichment services, productivity program and socio-cultural and recreational services.

After all those years, the most valuable lesson he learned is that life is important.

Jose described life like a candle. Its light may end in an instant if not taken care of.

But the people who gave them the opportunity to live a reformed life kept the light burning and its continuing illumination serves a source of inspiration to those who were lost in the darkness.

According to U.S. President John F. Kennedy: “We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future”.

Print this entry

DSWD Field Office V Regional Director Arnel B. Garcia encouraged employees to donate blood last January 21,2019 as part of the 68th DSWD Anniversary Celebration.

Legazpi City— DSWD Field Office V conducted a bloodletting activity last January 21, 2019 in connection with the DSWD 68th Anniversary Celebration.

The founding anniversary is observed every January. For the 68th anniversary, a bloodletting activity was facilitated by DSWD FO V Human Resource Welfare Section in collaboration with Philippine National Red Cross- Albay Chapter and Department of Health Regional Office V. This was simultaneously done by other Regional Offices all over the country.

22 eligible DSWD employees participated in the activity who were assessed during the registration process.

Regional Director Arnel B. Garcia encouraged the employees to join this advocacy to help save lives through blood donation.

“It is a rewarding experience for us because we can extend the life of others,” Dir. Garcia added.

Doctor Alan Lucañas, the team leader of the bloodletting activity, acknowledged this initiative and expressed interest to accept similar engagements with DSWD to augment the scarce blood supply.

All the DSWD blood donors received snacks and freebies from DOH and were excused at work to take a break after.

Print this entry

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Office Field Office V has temporarily suspended the conditions of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to help the affected families of Tropical Depression (TD) Usman.

According to Regional Director Arnel B. Garcia, in the event of calamity, it is DSWD’s recourse to suspend the conditions of the Program. He said the suspension of the conditions of 4Ps allows the beneficiaries to receive their cash grants in full (100%) from the months of December 2017 until January 2018.

“Even if they (beneficiaries) are unable to comply with all the conditions of the program on the said months, they will still receive their cash grants without deductions (100%) as a way to aid the families from the onslaught of TD Usman,” Dir. Garcia added.

DSWD 4Ps reported, a total of 226,428 affected household beneficiaries in  the whole Region, with four provinces declared for suspension of 4Ps conditions.

These Provinces are Albay with 73,570 affected households; Camarines Norte with 31,361 affected households, Camarines Sur with 106,192 affected households and four Municipalities in Sorsogon which are Bulan, Bulusan, Matnog and Magallanes with a total 15,305 affected households.

Pantawid Pamilya

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is a human development measure of national government providing conditional cash grants to poor families to improve the health, nutrition and education of children aged 0-18.

Under the program, a beneficiary family receives cash assistance under health grant of P500 (total of P6,000/year); an education grant of P300 per child per month in elementary or P500 per child per month in High School (total of P3,000.00 in Elementary or P5,000.00 in High School per child per year).

For every household a maximum of three children are allowed to benefit from the Program.

Aside from the monetary assistance, the family also receives P600 worth of rice subsidy per month.

In order to receive the cash grants, the conditions set by the program are: availing pre and post-natal care for pregnant women, parents must attend Family Development Session, children aged 0-5 must receive regular preventive health check-ups and vaccines, children aged 6-14 must receive deworming pills twice a year and children aged 3-18 should have 85% attendance in school.

At present, a total of 363,870 households benefitted from the Program.

Also, DSWD has so far provided a total of P29.241M worth of assistance such as family food packs, malong, blankets, tents, family kits, kitchen, dignity, sleeping, hygiene kits to families housed in evacuations centers or individuals affected by flood, landslides brought by TD Usman.***GLindio-IO-4Ps

Print this entry

Sandra Barruga, 44, a resident of Brgy. Burocbusoc in Buhi, Camarines Sur recounts her experience when Tropical Depression ‘Usman’ hit town last December 29, 2018.

A family’s slumber was disturbed with a loud sound of rocks crumbling down the hillside that feels like a strong earthquake.

With safety on the palms of their hands, the father can’t contain his fear, so he took courage to get out of their house at 10 o’clock in the evening. He was in great shock upon seeing the waist-high flood waters about to conquer their home.

This was the dreadful experience of Melchor Narra, 59, a resident of Barangay Burocbusoc in Buhi, Camarines Sur when Tropical Depression ‘Usman’ struck Bicol Region on the 29^th of December 2018, a few days before New Year’s Day.

From downtown Buhi, their house can be reached through a 45-minute motorcycle ride.

“Nakalipat kami sa harong kan tugang ko kan bumisita man ang kapitan, mga kagawad pati man ang mga rescuers (We transferred to my brother’s house when the barangay captain, councilors and rescuers visited us),” Narra explained.

On the aftermath of TD Usman, their area was surrounded with uprooted trees and enormous rocks that come from the mountain on the other side of the road.

According to Narra, this is the first time he experienced this kind of distressful incident.

“Medyo na-trauma kami kaya nagsimba kami sa Iriga para magpasalamat siguro kung natuluyan kami nin mga gapo asin kahoy digdi baka ubos kami sa laog kan harong (We were traumatized so we attended a Holy Mass in Iriga to give thanks because if our house were struck by rocks and tree trunks, we might also die),” he said.

Guiding Light for Safety   

For Sandra Barruga, 44, also a resident of Burocbusoc, the Tropical Depression ‘Usman’ has left a great ordeal on her life.

According to Barruga, they were attending a neighbor’s wake when the electricity supply was cut-off, so they’ve decided to return to their respective homes.

Due to fear, Barruga came outside of the house to observe the surroundings.

“Maray na sana ngane po igwang solar-powered street light, sa paghiling ko igwa na palan tubig samo kaya nagparakurahaw ako na igwa na nin baha asin magdulag na ta may tubig na (Good thing, we have the solar-powered street lights. Upon seeing the flood waters, I shouted to my neighbors that there’s flood and we need to vacate the area),” she recounted.

Even before the calamity, the community has already decided to install solar-powered street lights through the Department of Social Welfare and Development Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (DSWD Kalahi-CIDSS).

“Maray na may tigkabit na street lights bago mag-uran dahil dae ko mailing su baha ta banggi (I’m thankful that there are street lights installed before the strong rains came because I won’t be able to see the flood that night),” Barruga continued.

Narra also shared the impact of their community project in times of disasters.

“Igwa pang ilaw habang nagalakaw kami maski ngane baha igwa pang ilaw (When we are evacuating, the street lights are still fully functional despite the flood waters),” he said.

Barruga also shared that she attended barangay assemblies and even aided in determining the possible solutions for their needs, thus; the installation of street lights came into fruition.

“Tama talaga an pighagad mi na dapat street lights ta magayon ining produkto sa barangay (It’s a good decision to put up those street lights since it’s a good product of the barangay),” she stated.

Through community meetings, we are all given the significant opportunity to voice out concerns as well as decide for our community.

But, we must also reflect on the responsibility appointed to us when identifying issues and outcomes because, in every choice we made, it will enormously affect not only us but also fellow community members.    /ramsertan/

About DSWD Kalahi-CIDSS

Camarines Sur has implemented Kalahi-CIDSS in 35 municipalities with a total implementation grant of PhP 1,950,716,688.10 and local counterpart contribution of Php 75,273,846.32 from barangay and municipal local government units (LGUs) to fund community-managed sub-projects.

DSWD had allocated Buhi with PhP 59,991,924.00.

The installation of solar-powered street lights has a total project cost of PhP 1,393,150.00 which benefitted 75 households.

For more details about DSWD Kalahi-CIDSS, follow this link:

http://ncddp.dswd.gov.ph/site/faqs

Print this entry

Legazpi City–The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office V again forged into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Department of Education (DepEd) for its Emergency Brigada Eskwela. The simple MOA signing happened last January 10 at the DSWD Regional Office.

According to DepEd Regional Director Gilbert Sadsad, the Emergency Brigada Eskwela is one way of achieving fast recovery and rehabilitation of school facilities after a disaster. It also promotes values of cooperation, camaraderie, and sense of involvement of the community.

Under the agreement, the DSWD will provide food for work or food assistance to community volunteers who will help in the clean-up, repair, and rehabilitation of school facilities in the schools affected by Tropical Depression Usman.

“The provision of food for work would like to address the basic subsistence needs of the affected families at the same time will help in rebuilding the damaged schools,” said DSWD Bicol Regional Director Arnel Garcia.

Last January 13, the DSWD has already provided 5,777 family food packs to DepEd for distribution to the nine (9) municipalities in Albay and Camarines Sur.
Way back 2017, the two agencies in collaboration with Educo, a nongovernment agency, has already partnered in rebuilding schools for Typhoon Nina affected families.

DSWD Efforts on TD Usman

Aside from the food and non-food items, the DSWD provided financial assistance to thirty-three (33) families with reported death and injury among its members. Likewise, to ease the agony from being displaced, the agency also conducts psychosocial and debriefing activities in the evacuation centers such as film showing/storytelling to children, livelihood and gardening to parents, among others.

Meanwhile, as of January 16, 2019, 12NN Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC) report, there are still 458 families or 1,966 individuals staying in 19 evacuation centers, (9) in Albay and (10) in Camarines Sur.

TD Usman’s aftermath has affected a total of 106,687 families or 497,903 individuals in 598 barangays in the Bicol Region. The DSWD also recorded 8,368 families with damaged houses.

To date, a total of Php 80,085,261.75 relief assistance has been provided to affected families from DSWD (Php 28,450,685.75), Local Government Units (LGUs) (Php 7,362,303.00), Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) & other Government Organizations (GO’s) (44,272,273.00).

The agency is closely coordinating with the LGUs for resource augmentation to the affected areas.

Print this entry