DSWD awards photo contest winners

THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) held a photo exhibit and awarding ceremonies at Robinsons Place Mall in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental last Dec. 8 and 9.

The photo exhibit highlighted the different faces of people and sites in the poverty-stricken municipalities in Negros Oriental where the government’s poverty alleviation program, the Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), is implemented.

Winning photographers from Dumaguete City were Ladee Shayne Sarno in the amateur “people” category and Joanne Michelle Benida in the amateur “places” category. Roy Saclot from Jimalalud town won in the community-based category.

Photo entries will add to the collection of good practices of the community-driven development (CDD) approach of Kalahi-CIDSS, which is being planned to be scaled up into a national program to include other impoverished municipalities in the country by 2013.

The CDD approach empowers communities by honing their capacities to analyze local situation, identify community needs, and plan and implement small-scale community projects in partnership with the local government units.

The contest was focused on the social preparation activities of the community that included trainings, workshops, meetings, planning sessions, identification and prioritization of community needs and community situational analysis.

Next year, the contest will capture action pictures of people implementing their proposed projects themselves.