In the 4th cycle of implementation of the DSWD’s Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) in the town of Moalboal, all 15 barangays vied to get prioritized for funding.
Out of the 15, 7 barangays were prioritized for the Php 12,454,200 municipal grant namely: Barangay Tomonoy. Agbalanga, Bala, Bugho Batad, Tunga, Batadbatad and Basdiot. Four (4) of these barangays proposed for concreting of access roads and three (3) for school buildings.
The community Volunteers of Barangay Basdiot who got the last spot were so thankful but were also worried, for they have to produce a total of Php 1,183,800 for their Local Cash Counterpart (LCC) for the construction of 1 unit 2 classroom building.
“Dako-dako gyud ang among gikinahanglan para sa counterpart pero amo ning paningkamotan, magtinabangay lang, kay gikinahanglan gyud namo ang elementary school building (We need a big amount for our counterpart, but we will find a way,we will work together because we really need this),” expressed Barangay Captain Cirilo Tapales.
Not only the community volunteers who were so happy with the result but also the students who will be benefitting the classroom building. “I am very happy even if we were at the bottom of the list, we will now have an additional classroom,” said Beverly Llamedo, a student of Basdiot Elementary School.
“As soon as I saw the result and knew that we have to put up a huge counterpart, I texted Captain Tapales to accept and need not worry, because we, the community volunteers will support this project and make it happen,” shared Shiela Muhammad, Barangay Representation Team Chairperson of Basdiot.
“The community volunteers have gone through a lot since DSWD Kalahi-CIDSS started in our town. This is not a thing to worry about, if we are united and we will work on this together, we can make it happen,” shared Shiela after the activity.
These processes give the common people a chance to identify their needs and to decide what need should be addressed first. The Kalahi-CIDSS program in its many years of implementation in the region, has been teaching community folks to be participative, it also teaches them to voice out their need and to decide what is good for their community.
In the Municipal Inter Barangay Forum Participatory Resource Allocation, the community volunteers were taught on how to effectively present their problems and how to encourage others to be vigilant and to be involved in every activity of the community.
The Kalahi-CIDSS processes have been proven in years of practice to be effective because volunteers are taught to participate in the affairs of the community and decide for its own development. ###
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