DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental, May 15 (PIA) — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Region 7 has partnered with the 79th Infantry Battalion of the Third Infantry Division of the Philippine Army for the implementation of an anti-poverty project in the hinterlands of Negros Oriental.
Personnel from DSWD-7 have earlier been deployed to 11 towns in the province identified to benefit from the government’s poverty alleviation program, Kapit Bisig-Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS).
Said towns are Ayungon, Basay, Bindoy, Dauin, Jimalalud, Mabinay, Manjuyod, Pamplona, Santa Catalina, Vallehermoso, and Zamboanguita.
Since the presence of rebel groups have been reported in some of the surrounding communities where Kalahi-CIDSS projects will be implemented, the battalion troopers will secure the area for the safe implementation of the project.
Under the Kalahi-CIDSS program, DSWD staff will visit the target barangays and meet with village residents to integrate them into the process of community-empowerment activity cycles.
With its new partnership with the Army, the social welfare agency is confident it will be able to reach all target communities in the province by 2015.
Kalahi-CIDSS is a national project of the Philippine government spearheaded by DSWD to address poverty issues in the countryside by funding the construction of priority infrastructure projects in its coverage areas such as health stations, classrooms, day care centers, among others.
It started in Region 7 in 2003 in Bohol and Siquijor provinces.
The poverty alleviation project launched in Negros Oriental on April 17, 2012 with a signing of a memorandum of agreement by the mayors of the identified towns and DSWD. (RMN-PIA7 Negros Oriental with reports from Simeon Remata III)
