Leyte town completes anti-poverty projects

SAN MIGUEL, Leyte, Jan. 11 (PNA) - This town is close to completing its Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) sub projects.

Mayor Cheeryl Enrica Esperas said that among the projects recently completed include rehabilitation of multi-purpose hall, rehabilitation of two-story village hall, streetlight installation, construction of box culvert and pathway, rehabilitation of village chapel, rehabilitation of mini wharf with covered walk, construction of day care center and reconstruction of one-classroom school building.

Esperas disclosed the Kalahi-CIDSS program has only been implemented in their town only recently, but they saw to it that the sub-projects identified by the communities will be finished within 2015 as targeted.

“I have always believed in the Kalahi process which employs the counterparting scheme. This is more empowering for the people in the community and make them more responsible in prioritizing projects in their own locality,” Esperas said.

Compared to other Leyte towns where the program is already on its third cycle, Kalahi CIDSS has started in the San Miguel town two years ago.

It is noted that after the Yolanda onslaught, there has been a slight change in the prioritization of sub-projects identified by people in the affected communities.

At present, residents of most of the Yolanda-affected communities have identified needed sub-projects such as small roads, bridges and pathways because they believe that such projects can be beneficial to their target of “full normalization” as part of the recovery and rehabilitation effort.

Esperas said this can be noted too in the sub-projects completed in the various villages of San Miguel where identified projects consisted mainly of reconstructing or rehabilitating important community facilities that aid the villages in the delivery of basic services.

“As a result the people have become conscientious of what project to implement. They have also actively participated in the planning, purchasing of materials, construction, and even in financial auditing,” Esperas added.

Kalahi CIDSS-NCDDP (National Community-Driven Development Program) is one of the poverty alleviation programs of the Philippines government being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The program is one of the three core social protection programs of DSWD in combating poverty. It uses the community-driven development (CDD) strategy to empower ordinary citizens to actively and directly participate in local governance by identifying their own community needs, planning, implementing, and monitoring projects together to address local poverty issues.

The CDD brings power back to the people by giving them the capacity and opportunity to make decisions on issues contributing to their poverty situation.

The Kalahi-CIDSS Fund has a total grant of PHP10.4 billion from the combined resources of the government and its partners.

Among the government partners providing for that fund are the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, Millennium Challenge Corporation of the United States and the Government of Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. (PNA)
JBP/SQM/AHLETTE C. REYES/EGR

Leyte gov’t expands compact farming

SAN MIGUEL, Leyte, Dec. 10 (PNA) – The Leyte provincial government is expanding its compact farming program in this town.

Brenda Calonge, 45, from Sta. Cruz village is one of the 60 Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries who just completed training on introducing cultivation technology for backyard farming.

A single mother of five, her family heavily depends on the fishing income of her eldest child. The family's meager income is augmented with financial support from the government through the conditional cash transfer.

Life is not easy for them since there were times that they have nothing to eat. It was only when they became 4Ps recipients that her perennial problem was partly solved.

But the assistance from the national government is not enough to sustain their needs, prompting her to join compact-farming training sponsored by the local government.

They were trained by personnel from the provincial agriculturist office through the "More Income in the Countryside-Program" launched by Leyte Gov. Leopoldo Dominico Petilla.

Although they don’t have enough space to plant vegetables, she already have a plan on how she can grow high-value crops in their backyard.

“I will use empty plastic bottles, cans and plastic to grow them,” said Calonge.

The beneficiaries were selected by the school management of Sta. Cruz National High School who introduced ways on how they could help 4Ps recipients of the village to alleviate their living conditions, said Mayor Cheeryl Enrica Esperas.

“I hope that the values that were taught to them will stay with them and not only the technology that was shared by their trainers. Because if they will not treasure the knowledge that was given to them there’s no sustainability of this project,” said Esperas.

Esperas said training locals on modern farming is in line with their goal to make the town as one of the vegetable-producing areas in the province. (PNA)
JMC/SQM/ROEL T. AMAZONA/EGR