By Jocelyn P. Alvarez
ZAMBOANGA CITY - People in the community are our region’s utmost resource. A
healthy, educated and energized population raises the region’s chance for sustainable
development and prosperity!
To deliver basic services of the
national government directly to the poorest of the poor, the Mindanao
Communicators’ Network (MCN) supported
by Regional Development Council’s (RDC) Regional Communication and Advocacy Plan –
Technical Working Group (RCAP-TWG) will
conduct an information caravan on July 21 and 23 in Talusan Zamboanga
Sibugay and La Libertad, Zamboanga del Norte, respectively.
The Information Caravan not only
intends to deliver immediate assistance but also seeks to inspire the poor
living in the community to uplift their living condition by helping themselves
first and then equip them with skills and livelihood training which they could
apply in their day-to-day life.
Information Caravan is designed to
give hope and to address poverty, enabling the poor to help them transform
their lives through government interventions.
Convergence
of agencies
Various
national government agencies are expected to converge for the infocar not only
to deliver basic services but also to fulfill the commitment of the Aquino
Administration to fight poverty, empower the poor and the marginalized segments
of the society. This means the participating agencies bring along with them
programs and projects readily available for the poor that will serve as “life
vest” to those currently drowning in extreme poverty.
The
“Infocar” team will bring services like skills and livelihood trainings,
equipment, livelihood assistance, and other activities and projects that are
design to have a direct, immediate and substantial impact in empowering the
poor, after all, fighting poverty means investing in people’s capacity to
participate meaningfully in the economy, access gainful livelihood and improve
the quality of their lives.
Response
to the need of the poor
The
Primary concern of the Information caravan is to respond or address the
concerns of the poor community. This
activity is both a feed-in and a feed-forward mechanism. The activity,
initially, involves the conduct of a community needs analysis. Then based on
the needs analysis, concerned agencies are mobilized by the Philippine
Information Agency (PIA) for a caravan to the said community where
information exchange and delivery of services are undertaken.
In
the world of the poor, people don't enjoy food security, don't own many assets,
are stunted and wasted, don't live long, can't read or write, don't have access
to easy credit, are unable to save much, aren't empowered, can't ensure
themselves well against crop failure or household calamity, live in unhealthy
surroundings, suffer from “inadequacies.” Through the conduct of Infocar, these
concerns are processed and addressed, it not immediately, at least with a
specified time frame.
Government
agencies like the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Agriculture (DA),
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Dept. of Labor
and Employment (DOLE), Dept. of Trade and Industry (DTI), National Food
Authority (NFA), Dept. of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), National
Irrigation Administration (NIA), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
(BFAR) and other national government agencies including LGUs come together as
one in the infocar to address the concerns of the poor, to address the
challenges of poverty to effect changes or improvement in the community.
The
Information Caravan is an annual project of the Mindanao Communicators Network
(MCN)-Region 9 Chapter spearheaded by PIA9. In 2014, infocar was conducted in
the town of Sominot, Zamboanga Del Sur.