DSWD beneficiaries’ stories to be shared in new book

By Dominic I. Sanchez

ZAMBOANGA CITY - Who are the poor? What are their struggles, and how do they cope? These questions will be answered in a book by the poor themselves who wish to have their voices heard by the public.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Social Marketing Unit here is currently producing Paglaom Part II, a compilation of success stories of the poor, particularly the beneficiaries of its poverty-reduction programs. The book is tentatively scheduled to be launched January 2014.

“The beneficiaries of our programs, Pantawid Pamilya, Kalahi-CIDSS and the Sustainable Livelihood Program have much to share about how they are very determined to succeed in spite of their struggles,” said Narrabelle Bue, DSWD-IX regional information officer.

The book shall contain stories of beneficiaries of the three programs from different municipalities in Western Mindanao. The programs are collectively called Tatsulo, which is the agency’s convergence initiative geared towards multiplying the impact of the three among individual families.

In the poorest municipalities all over the country, the three programs are complementary. While Pantawid provides families with conditional cash grants for children’s education and health, Kalahi-CIDSS capacitates community residents in the poorest areas to identify and implement by themselves priority developmental projects such as the construction of roads, schools, health stations and others.

In addition, the SLP trains Pantawid beneficiaries to be able to start a sustainable micro-enterprise. These programs also involve the participation of various non-government and civil society groups, to ensure that the programs are free from corruption.

Social welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman has defined Tatsulo, or the merging of the programs as a “torch that will bring the poorest out from poverty”. (PIA9)