Gov’t program gives hope to disadvantaged families

CEBU, Philippines - “My son does not have to work anymore harvesting vegetables at P6/kilo because he is now back in school,”  said Cresencia Cabaras, a mother of six in Barangay Sibugay, Cebu City.

“The health and educational needs of my cerebral palsy child will now be attended to,” said the hopeful Noralyn Er-Er of Barangay Malubog, Cebu City.

 Cresencia and Noralyn are among the 2,865 beneficiaries under the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT) program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program who received their first cash grant.

MCCT is a  modified version of the regular Pantawid Pamilya that focuses on families that are in need of social protection, which includes but not limited to child laborers, children in conflict with the law, street and homeless families in Pockets of Poverty areas not covered by the regular CCT, indigenous migrant families, families of children with disabilities, families of child laborers, displaced families due to manmade and natural disasters and other environmental factors and all other families classified as in Need of Special Protection. 

“We are glad that the first  distribution of their grants is done off-site because it saves on fare especially the mountain barangay areas such as Taptap, Sibugay, Malubog and Adlawon wherein the cheapest fare would be P150 roundtrip on a habal-habal. Most importantly, they now believe that the program is indeed out to help them,” said Atty. Valenzona of Share-A-Child.

More than P6.2M was distributed simultaneously by partner  organizations  Share-A-Child which reached out to  1,063 households, Forge with 833 households,  and Bidlisiw catering to 969 households in various areas of Cebu, and Mandaue City. 

The MCCT hopes to strengthen the program’s coverage and its approach is designed to maximize the reach of the Conditional Cash Transfer Program to help  beneficiaries overcome their situation and mainstream them into the regular CCT while generating appropriate resources and services in the community.

Executive Director Lolit Ganapin of Bidlisiw said,  “The gratitude coming from the beneficiaries is overwhelming and their willingness to comply with the conditions  showing  that they indeed want to change for the better  is inspirational.” (FREEMAN)