Upon receiving the report that Randolph Jumao-os of Brgy. Taft, Surigao City would not be able to claim his cash grant because his legs were paralyzed and he had no relatives nearby to claim on his behalf, Social Welfare Officer Caroline Catalan, head of the Disaster Response Management Unit (DReMU), personally visited him at his house and handed the Php24,000 cash for shelter assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) during the scheduled pay-out on April 25,2017. He is one of the 403 households whose houses were destroyed when a 6.7 magnitude earthquake hit the city last February 10, 2017.

“Kung makalakaw lang jud ko ako na mismo mokuha jaong kwarta sa gym, pero daghang salamat kaayo nga nianhi ang social worker sa DSWD dinhi sa balay ug sa kwarta nga gihatag para ma-repair nako ning balay (If only I can walk, I will be the one to claim the money at the gymnasium (where the pay-out was held), but I’m really thankful that the DSWD social worker visited me here and for the money provided to repair my house),” Randolph said.

The Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) is a program of DSWD which provides cash grants to families whose houses are either totally or partially damaged due to occurrence of disasters. The said grant is provided by the Government for the calamity victims to buy construction materials to rehabilitate their houses. ###