TACLOBAN CITY – The regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development(DSWD) has reported that about 4,470 projects were completed under its flagship anti-poverty program Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS). In a press conference Tuesday (July 19), DSWD 8 shared a recent regional update on the Kalahi-CIDSS program in the region which has already disbursed a total of P 3.2 billion in funds under a P 3.7 billion total fund allocation for the region. As of June 2016, the DSWD has already provided the program the financial requirements of P 1.5 billion for Leyte; P 785 million for Samar; P 658 million for Northern Samar; P 402 million for Eastern Samar; P 218 million for Southern Leyte; and P 122 million for Biliran. These funds went into the construction of 1,018 school buildings and day care centers, 265 health stations, 73.65 kilometers of drainage canals, 2,668.8 linear meters of seawalls, 749 water systems, 1,284 electric lamp posts and 1,245.76 kilometers of roads, access trails and bridges all over the region. Capability trainings were also conducted for recipient barangays.
About 827 of these projects are on-going while 183 are in the procurement stage. DSWD-8 Regional Director Restituto Macuto said their office will continue to involve the communities through its Community-Driven Development (CDD) strategy. The CDD involves the engagement of the residents in the communities in the local development wherein they themselves determine what projects that should be implemented that could uplift them from poverty. Community projects under the program are being completed through the various modalities which include Kalahi-CIDSS Additional Financing, which expanded the first phase of Kalahi-CIDSS; Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Project, Australian Grant project from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Japan Social Development Fund-Livelihood for Vulnerable Urban Communities (JSDF-LVUC) Project, Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR), Kalahi-CIDSS-Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan, and the Kalahi-CIDSS Bottom-up Planning and Budgeting. In the region, Kalahi-CIDSS is being implemented in all of its six provinces covering 138 municipalities and 3,785 barangays.
The DSWD-8 lists a total of 738,548 households in the region. (AHLETTE C. REYES)
