ADB team visits Bohol to witness pro-poor project

A TEAM from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was in Bohol to witness the development of the bank’s funded program — the set 3 of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program last 2010.

Annually, the ADB conducts a familiarization tour participated by their executive and alternate directors on some of their funded programs.

This year, the 16 members of ADB Board of Directors, headed by executive director Gaudencio S. Hernandez Jr., chose Bohol as the venue of their tour.

“We want to see for ourselves the developmental impact of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), commonly known as Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, and witness firsthand how this project benefited the Boholanos,” Hernandez said in his message to the beneficiaries in the towns of Carmen and Dagohoy.

The ADB team  and DSWD Undersecretary Parisya Taradji heard the testimonies of partners and beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilya.

In the town of Carmen, Schools District Supervisor Renato Calamba reported an improvement in the 2011 result of the National Achievement Test, which is 78.98 percent from 56.89 percent before the program was implemented.

“The program has helped us in our campaign for all the children to go to school and be given basic quality education,” said Calamba.

“My parents are financially hardup that they could not provide even eyeglasses. That’s why I got low grades because I had difficulty reading due to eye problems. When my mother became a grantee, she immediately had me underwent an eye checkup and issued eyeglasses, which is covered by the program,” Era Marie Vargas, a 10-year-old grade 5 pupil of Katipunan Elementary School in Carmen, said in local dialect.

Dagohoy Mayor Germinio Relampagos lauded the program, saying it  increases health center birth deliveries, immunization and attendance to responsible parenthood and family planning seminars, prompting the local government to hire additional barangay health workers and increase the town’s medical allocations.

The day ended with Hernandez and the rest of the delegates touched by the testimonies of partners, parents and children.

In her closing remarks, DSWD Undersecretary Taradji said, “It is clear that the beneficiaries benefited from the program, appreciated it and made use of it for their development.”

“The DSWD and ADB will continue to join hands to touch the lives of these vulnerable people,” she added.

Pantawid Pamilya aims to provide cash assistance to the poor to alleviate their needs and to break the intergenerational poverty cycle.

To avail the cash grant, pregnant mothers must undergo pre-and post-natal care and be attended during childbirth by a trained health professional, parents must attend responsible parenthood sessions, 0-5-year-old children must receive regular health checkups, vaccines and deworming pills twice a year, 3-14 year old children must achieve at least 85 percent attendance in day care, pre-school, elementary and high school classes.