The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office VII hopes that with more community projects and partnerships with poor communities, access to basic services will become more accessible for everyone.

Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS), the agency’s poverty reduction, recently conducted a Focus Group Discussion among community volunteers in Aloguinsan to benchmark the success of the program.

The program’s existence in Aloguinsan has included several projects since 2015, including access roads, bridges, footpaths, and water systems – the results of active participation from the community and support from the local government unit.

Now that the community is facing the threat of COVID-19, DSWD is once again committed to delivering a new set of projects including an isolation facility, health stations, supplies, and equipment that will provide basic medical care.

At the activity, Assistant Regional Director Shalaine Marie Lucero emphasized the importance of community organizing. “May the success of our program bring more projects not just in the form of social welfare but also in improving the economic status of small communities,” she said.

Volunteers were taught during the activity that community projects are byproducts of people’s empowerment and that their commitment to the program is the end goal of the program’s advocacies.

Convergence of DSWD programs

Among the evident successes of the program is the convergence of other DSWD programs, such as the participation of 4Ps beneficiaries in the rollout of projects.

They are glad that they joined KALAHI-CIDSS because they know that they will benefit from it, especially the medical care that the health station will soon provide, which is a Pantawid program conditionality for partner-beneficiaries.

The health facility in Brgy. Angilan is expected to be fully operational by April 2022 with the deployment of staff from the Rural Health Unit and the provision of medical supplies and equipment from KALAHI-CIDSS.

Presence of good governance and people empowerment

Local officials are hesitant that the program will be accepted in the community because of how difficult the processes are but they embraced the principles of KALAHI-CIDSS and took advantage of the mechanism in place to advance their personal well-being as well as community development.

Angilan Punong Barangay Lorenzo M. Mainit, Sr believes that the participation of his people in all the groundwork is the kind of public service that the community needs. “The ideals of good governance and people empowerment are common practices here in Angilan because of KALAHI-CIDSS,” he said.

Through regular meetings, mentoring sessions, and the provision of tasks, volunteers get a glimpse of what public service is all about. ###

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