The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in region 7 recently turned over 67 individual toilets to the beneficiaries through the Kapitbisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) in Upper Cabangcalan, Lazi, Siquijor.
The community’s desire to have a zero-open defecation is the reason why the community volunteers decided to vote and prioritized the construction of 56 individual comfort rooms in Barangay Upper Cabangcalan, Lazi Siquijor.
In the 2nd cycle of Kalahi-CIDSS implementation in Lazi, the community volunteers of Upper Cabangcalan were able to convince other representatives to the Municipal Inter-Barangay Forum- Participatory Resource Allocation (MIBF- PRA) to vote for their proposed sub-project which was the construction of 56 individual comfort rooms. Barangay Upper Cabangcalan got a grant of Php 816, 000.00 from Kalahi-CIDSS. The Lazi Local Governement Unit also gave a local cash counter part of Php109,114.00. The Barangay Local Government Unit (BLGU) provided 11 toilet bowls to the newly identified beneficiaries not included in the survey in 2016.
“Atong gipanghingusgan nga ang tanan nga panimalay aduna gyud Comfort rooms aron usab limpyo ang palibot ug walay sakit2x nga mahiabot sa lugar (We strongly campaigned and encouraged all households to have their own comfort rooms for us to have a clean environment and free from diseases as a result of defecation in open spaces),” said Sanitation Inspector Junieto Tumapon.
The result of the 2016 survey by the barangay officials showed that about 56 Households have no comfort rooms.
“We are happy that DSWD Kalahi-CIDSS provided funds for these households to have individual comfort rooms. We hope that in the next validation we can declare Brgy. Upper Cabangcalan, a ZOD community, shared Gemma Lumingkit, rural health midwife of Lazi.
“We experienced groping in the dark when in the middle of the night, we had to go to the cornfield to defecate,” shared Veronica Galavin, one of the recipients of these individual toilets.
Vice Mayor Earl Aljas, congratulated the beneficiaries for the successful implementation of the sub-project. He expected the recipients to take good care of the sub-project. He also appreciated the Department for answering the need of Upper Cabangcalan. “Importante kaayu ni nga nia na tay mga CR, kay aron malikay kita sa mga sakit sama sa diarrhea (This is very important to have our own comfort rooms, to keep us from diseases like diarrhea),” added Vice Mayor Aljas.
“Nalipay kaayo ko, nga nahimo ko nga usa sa beneficiary nga nahatagan aning maong kasilyas, kay sauna lisod kaayu nya makishare lang kami ug CR sa among silingan, (I am happy I am one of the beneficiaries of the toilet. Before, we only shared comfort room with our neighbor),” expressed Arlie Jean Bayhonan, community volunteer and beneficiary.
According to Bayhonan, they learned from their Family Development Sessions that the practice of open space defecation may lead to serious negative effects on human health and to the environment. ###
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