DSWD7 staff turns over family food packs to farmers and their families who were badly affected by El Niño. (Photo from DSWD Region 7 Facebook page)
CEBU CITY, Cebu (PIA) — The Department of Social Welfare and Development – Region 7 continues to roll out its assistance to farmers and their families in Central Visayas who have been affected by the drought caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon.
DSWD assisted a total of 46,220 families in 205 barangays from Cebu City and the provinces of Cebu and Negros Oriental.
According to DSWD7 regional director Shalaine Lucero, they distributed family food packs (FFPs) to families who have been identified to be badly-hit by the El Niño.
“DSWD has already provided a total of 46,220 family food packs that we augmented to the many areas affected. One is we consider Cebu City because they were the first to declare the state of calamity,” Lucero said.
As of this writing, the distributed FFPs amounted to P11,090,892.
Each food pack includes six kilograms of rice, four canned tuna, four canned meat or corned beef, two cans of sardines, five sachets of instant coffee, and five sachets of cereal drink.
Among the local government units (LGUs) whose barangays were affected are Cebu City, towns of Alcoy, Catmon, Madridejos, Sogod, Tudela, and Carcar in Cebu, and Bayawan City, Tanjay City, Mabinay, Santa Catalina, and Zamboanguita in Negros Oriental.
Lucero said the process of identifying the areas that will be provided with FFPs is dependent on the request of the LGU.
“Ang process ng DSWD would be really on the request of LGU, that we will do the assessment looking at the situation then we provide the augmentation. So that’s how we do the entire process of providing augmentation to the LGU,” Lucero said.
DSWD records show 9,208 FFPs have been distributed in Tanjay City, Negros Oriental and in Catmon and Sogod in Cebu.
Lucero assured that DSWD continues to be active in responding to disasters.
“Continuous ang packing sa DSWD, so our warehouses, we have three – Bohol, Dumaguete City, and here in Cebu City. So these three warehouses continue to pack to make sure that we have enough resources at the same time,” she said.
The DSWD regional director explained that they maintain at least 60,000 FFPs in their stocks to be able to swiftly respond to emergencies.
“Under our Citizen’s Charter, naa man gyud tay mga (we have) Standard Operating Procedures. We should be able to really respond within three days, dili pwede na maunya-unya (we can’t be delayed),” said Lucero.
