Poor families get financial aid

CEBU, Philippines – About 3,000 poor families from 10 barangays of Cebu City yesterday received financial assistance from the national government so they can continue to send their children to school despite their hardship.

The project of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, dubbed as Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), is a poverty reduction strategy that grants cash assistance to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education, particularly if they have children up to 14 years old.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña and DSWD’s Margarita Sampang who supervised the implementation of the project signed the memorandum of agreement in City Hall yesterday morning that started the distribution of the cash assistance.

The beneficiaries yesterday trooped to City Hall yesterday morning to claim their benefits, although they were advised to enter by batch to prevent chaos.

DSWD-7 public information officer Jaybee Carillo said the beneficiaries are residents of barangays Tejero, T. Padilla, Sawang Calero, Duljo-Fatima, Inayawan, Mambaling, and the mountain barangays of Kalunasan, Sudlon 1, Sudlon 2 and Tagba-o.

Carillo said the project will allow members of the underprivileged families to meet certain human development goals and break the poverty cycle by addressing issues of low educational achievement, high maternal and infant mortality rate, high malnutrition rate and high rate of child labor among the poor.

The government, through the program will directly provide money to the beneficiaries on condition that they will make sure to bring their children to school or to the health centers for medical checkup.

The program offers cash grant to the beneficiaries for a five-year period at P6,000 a year or P500 every month per household for health and nutritional expenses, and P3,000 for one school year per child for educational expenses, but only three children are allowed per household.

The parents’ failure to comply with the conditions as provided for under the MOA will result to suspension of the cash grants or dropping of the program.

Children aged zero to five years must be brought to health centers for them to receive regular preventive health checkups and vaccines. — Rene U. Borromeo/BRP (THE FREEMAN)