Surigao del Sur- Women community volunteers in Barangay Poblacion in Barobo, inaugurates today, April 1, 2014, their implemented food processing and women’s product center project assisted by the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process (GPBP) grant and facilitated by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the local government unit.
Completed within 75 days, it is a Php 569, 314 worth project, which epitomized the summed up Php 500, 000 GPBP allocated grant and the Php 69, 314 local cash counterpart (LCC) of the B/MLGU.
This livelihood center, situated in the bus terminal of Barobo, is one of the seven (7) 15 M worth projects which are implemented using the Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach of the Kapit- Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan- Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) in Barobo.
Pasalubong items like dried fish, key chains, local cookies and others will be displayed in the center.
Elsa D. Montemor, Regional Project Coordinator, said that among the 38 Kalahi-CIDSS- GPBP projects implemented in the region, this is the only livelihood center for women project, since mostly are day care centers and multi-purpose buildings.
Barangay Project Management Committee (BPMC) chairperson Tita M. Olvida, was very excited about this new infrastructure. “Dako akong kalipay nga naa na jud ning product center para sa mga women. Karon, aduna na mi klaro nga mabutangan sa among mga produkto ug pinaagi ani maka-income na jud mi pangtabang sa mga panginahanglan sa among panimalay. (I am very happy that we now have a center for women. We now have a place for us to display our products and through this we can have our income that we can help in providing the basic needs in our households).” Olvida emotionally shared.
“We are proud to say that this is a Project for the women and by the women,” Olvida added.
Other GPBP projects facilitated by DSWD Caraga are implemented under the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) and the Protective Services Unit (PSU) with beneficiaries from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program as the targeted recipients.
The GPBP (formerly BUB or Bottom-Up Budgeting) is an approach to preparing the budget proposal of national government agencies, considering the development needs of cities/municipalities as identified in their respective Local Poverty Reduction Action Plans (LPRAP) that shall be formulated with strong participation of the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). ###(Eunice G. Montaos/Social Marketing Unit/DSWD Field Office Caraga)