6,000 students seek DSWD educational assistance

LEGAZPI CITY—Thousands of Albayano youth lined up and queued for hours for four days last week to enlist for educational assistance given by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Bicol, a Social Welfare officer said today.

At least 5,876 indigent college students have enlisted since Monday last week to be included in DSWD’s Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS), said Jindra Mingoy, Social Welfare Officer 4 of the DSWD Protective Service Unit in Bicol.

Applicants for the educational assistance on Wednesday braved the 39-degree Celsius heat, never giving up their spot in the queue stretching about a hundred meters from the Embarcadero Mall Activity Center, where DSWD personnel received their enlistment forms and documents.

Mingoy, in a phone interview, said thousands of college students from poor families would benefit from the P175-million funding downloaded by DSWD central to their regional office.

Mingoy said the educational assistance under the AICS was started last year. DSWD-Bicol received P233 million last year, benefiting 22,603 students in the region.

Under the AICS guidelines, applicants who qualify for assistance receive from P2,000 to P5,000 in cash, according to

Arnel Garcia, DSWD regional director, in a statement.

The requirements include valid identification papers of the parents of the student seeking assistance, a certificate of indigency and residence from the barangay (village) council where the youth and his family live, and an assessment from the school were the youth is enrolled.

Garcia said the DSWD looks at the welfare of indigent and underprivileged children and youth ensuring that they would go to school with the help of AICS.

Garcia said AICS is a major program of the DSWD to provide immediate services to people in crisis or emergency situations.

The AICS, he said, provides financial assistance not just for education but also for medical and burial needs of indigent families.