DSWD to pour P547M into Leyte for ‘Yolanda’ victims

MANILA, Philippines–The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has earmarked more than P547 million this year for livelihood projects for thousands of families who were affected by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in Leyte in November 2013.

The allocation, under the DSWD Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP), will benefit 90,078 families.

“The DSWD will continue to support the economic activities and enterprises of affected families in Leyte to lift them out of poverty,” said Assistant Secretary Camilo Gudmalin.

The agency recently conducted a workshop in Palo, Leyte, under the Accelerated and Sustainable Anti-Poverty Program of its Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster.

Different enterprises

Gudmalin attended the workshop with Leyte Gov. Dominic Petilla, 40 Leyte town mayors and 26 representatives of national agencies.

Local officials identified certain enterprises that have the capacity to employ families under the SLP.

These are: eco-tourism and agriculture for the municipality of Kananga; chicharon production for Tunga; port development for San Isidro, Calubian and Tabango; water-refilling, hot springs development and electricity expansion for Burauen; soft broom and hollow block-making for Julita; and eco-tourism and peanut production for Dulag.

Gudmalin said the government’s conditional cash transfer program will be also tapped in the DSWD’s poverty reduction efforts for Yolanda

victims.

Petilla said that before it was struck by the killer typhoon, Leyte was the fourth-biggest producer of rice and the second-biggest producer of

coconut.

“We talked about recovery, rehabilitation, trauma, healing. But one thing we have to fight is poverty caused by the typhoon,” he said.

In December 2013, the province received 63,000 sacks of certified rice seeds from Europe to help farmers increase rice production.

Petilla said six million coconut trees in the province were damaged by the supertyphoon and the Philippine Coconut Authority is helping rebuild the industry.

“With the local and national government agencies converging with their services, our province is on the way to total recovery,” the governor said.