The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has earmarked a total of P132,534,291.25 for the continuous provision of livelihood assistance in the first half of 2018 to the displaced residents of Marawi City who are staying in evacuation centers and home-based communities.

The amount was obligated in 2017 by DSWD Field Offices (FOs) X and XII using the Department’s Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) fund under the government’s 2017 General Appropriations Act. FOs X and XII are the Department’s field offices that have been responding to the Marawi crisis.

The budget will be used to serve a total of 32,491 Marawi internally displaced persons (IDPs) within the first semester of 2018.

The interventions that will be provided to the beneficiaries are divided into two tracks: micro-enterprise development, which includes the provision of Seed Capital Fund (SCF) and Cash for Building Livelihood Assets (CBLA); and employment facilitation, which includes the provision of the Pre-Employment Assistance Fund (PEAF).

Concerned DSWD FOs have started to provide livelihood assistance under the SLP to Marawi IDPs since the start of the year.

DSWD FO X has provided various skills trainings in carpentry, masonry, painting, cookery, and bread and pastry making to some 420 IDPs in Baloi, Lanao Del Norte, with a total project cost of P9,343,500. The trainings are given in coordination with the partner-institutions accredited by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

The IDPs, who graduated in February, were also given a pre-employment assistance fund (PEAF) of P5,000 each. PEAF refers to the grant given to livelihood participants who need financial assistance in acquiring pre-employment requirements, such as birth certificate, barangay and NBI clearances, and school diploma, among others.

Meanwhile, the FO XII will provide CBLAs to 19,965 Marawi residents with a total project cost of P42,330,791.25. The CBLA program of the DSWD provides immediate cash assistance in exchange of rendering community-based labor to repair, rehabilitate, or develop physical and natural resources that will be used for productive and profitable microenterprises.

The FO has partnered with the Department of Agriculture in the identification of the projects, focusing on the rehabilitation of destroyed agricultural lands owned by the IDPs.

Field Office XII will also provide 4,066 participants with seed capital fund, a capacity-building grant for micro-enterprise development that will enable beneficiaries to set up a credit and savings facility and/or manage an individual or group enterprise.

The project will be implemented in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Science and Technology. It has a total project cost of P40,660,000.

Apart from the provision of CBLAs and SCF, FO XII will also extend a PEAF of P5,000 to each of the 8,040 target participants in the first half of the year. A total of P40,660,000 has been allocated for the provision of the pre-employment aid.

The Field Office has already started to distribute the PEAF to Marawi IDPs, extending it to 2,486 evacuees who graduated from TESDA’s Training for Work Scholarship Program – Massive Skills Training Program in January.

Cash-for-work implementation

On top of the interventions provided under SLP, the DSWD continues to implement the Cash-for-Work (CFW) program for the Marawi IDPs.  A total of P470,796,000 has been allocated for the provision of CFW to 78,466 IDPs computed at P200 per person per day for 30 days.

As of February 9, a total of 4,968 IDPs have benefited from the implementation of the CFW this year for an initial ten-day period amounting to P9,936,000.

Under the CFW, the displaced residents are hired to carry out clean-up activities and to help in food security, working in communal gardens and agricultural plantations.

In partnership with the local government of Marawi and private organizations, male IDPs were provided training on plumbing, carpentry, and furniture making while women were given cooking lessons and lectures on the preparation of nutritious food.

One IDP per family is entitled to access a 30-day CFW program.

“We would like to assure our fellow citizens from Marawi City that while the DSWD responds to other disasters the country is facing right now, we will continue to extend aid to them through livelihood opportunities that will help them get back on their feet and start their lives anew,” DSWD Officer-in-Charge Emmanuel A. Leyco said.