Thank you for visiting the official website of DSWD Field Office Caraga and my warm greetings of a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
In this website, we post relevant pieces of information about operations on social protection and distribution of social welfare services in the five provinces of Caraga Region namely Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Surigao del Norte and Province of Dinagat Islands.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is always greatly honored for being one of the front liners in combating poverty in the country. With the leadership of Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman, it has always been committed to its calling to serve and to help the poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged Filipinos.
Surely, time had run so fast and we are now in the last month of the year 2013. For the Office, it has been a colorful and meaningful year filled with different experiences and challenges.
The Philippines has faced a number of unfortunate events that required our Office to run the extra mile to be able to help the many Filipinos affected. The armed conflict in Zamboanga City in September, the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Bohol and Cebu in October and the strongest super typhoon in the country’s history, Yolanda, in November, were the series of calamities that eventually tested the resiliency of the Filipino people.
Having situated in the time of crisis, the bayanihan spirits of Filipinos were attested. We felt a great joy that our Office was able to help those who were affected by those calamities. Our utmost happiness springs from the wonderful opportunity to serve our needy countrymen. It is our great fulfillment to be able to express love at its finest and to send message of hope at its best to those who had been devastated by the catastrophes.
During the Zamboanga siege, a total of 3,000 family food packs, 490 woolen blankets and 1 unit wiikhall aluminum structure were sent by the Office as our help for the victims.
After the destructive earthquake struck in Bohol and Cebu, right then the Office had augmented staff to assist for the disaster operations and also had delivered 1, 140 family packs, 175 pieces of 500 ML bottled water and 25 sacks of rice.
For the super typhoon Yolanda, the Office had augmented 21 staff workers mobilized for disaster operations and had delivered 72, 808 family packs, 3,000 cases of 500ML bottled water and 1,300 boxes of biscuits. Also, 150 Pantawid Pamilya workers went to the typhoon-ravaged areas to validate and assess the situation to determine the needed assistance to be given.
Life must go on, an old cliché says. Despite these catastrophes that truly break our hearts, we must always be reminded that life is meant to be travelled onwards. We, Filipinos are popularly coined by other countries as a race of resilient people. With those calamities that already happened, we can only think of the best strategies we can do to help the victimized sustain and continue.
This year, DSWD Caraga continued in its cause of providing effective and efficient service by implementing the core anti-poverty programs as contributions of the Department in partnership and collaboration with stakeholders. These are the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan- Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) and Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP).
As of November 30, 2013 the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program already benefited the 171, 070 NHTS-PR identified poor families in the region. In the Set 1 with 37, 374 household beneficiaries, there were already 5, 173 who reached self-sufficiency level from the survival stage. This is way beyond the Office’s target which is 4, 333 household beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, SLP had reached up to 56, 654 beneficiaries served.
For the Kalahi-CIDSS program implementation, there were 1,016 completed sub-projects which cover the 438 barangays in the region.
In the Social Pension program, 16, 611 senior citizens were already served which amounted the 95% of our poor elderly Filipinos aged 77 and above.
Still in its ongoing service, the Supplemental Feeding program of the Office had served a total of 68, 452 day care children.
With these programs being actively implemented in the region, we take pride being a part of the achievement in helping Caraga region climb from the poorest region in the country during 2009 into being the sixth based on the April 2013 official poverty statistics of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).
The glory is not only ours for the taking. We humbly acknowledge that this achievement is a product of the collective work of the Department and our partners in improving the quality of life of the poor communities in Caraga.
May this page be a useful medium to inform you that we still continue performing our tasks well with the best of our abilities with our able and competent staff. Rest assured that we always carry our Office’s leadership brand name which is Matapat, Magiliw at Mahusay na paglilingkod.
Through the stories posted in this website, we purpose to inspire more people to share with us our hopes and visions of an improved quality of life for this country.
Indeed, I am immensely grateful.
May you have a meaningful and joy-filled celebration in remembrance of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, to whom all the glory and honor is due.
MINDA B. BRIGOLI, CESO III
Regional Director
