Around 418 Indigenous People (IP) families who are living in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDA) in Western Visayas availed of livelihood projects from the Department of Social Welfare and Development 6 (DSWD-6) recently.

A total of P 33.2 million was release for the said project.

MCCT focal person Shella Mae Lastimosa said most beneficiaries are come from selected provinces of Aklan, Antique and Negros Occidental,who are all covered by the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT) – a special sub-program of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

The MCCT program is designed to reach out families who are poor and more vulnerable and disadvantaged which are not covered by the regular Pantawid Pamilya because of their exclusion in the enumeration of the Listahanan or National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), a house-to-house assessment of poor households.

Lastimosa added each beneficiary undergoes two-day enhancing capability training through cow and hog raising before availing the provision of starter kit.

She also said the 418 beneficiaries who already availed of the program are only part of 1,658 target IP beneficiaries.

Elmer Roquero of Barangay Lublub, Valderrama, Antique said the cow which was given to him is a big help to his family especially that they are into farming.

Roquero, a parent leader, added that raising a cow is inexpensive that’s why he does not need to worry if he has no money.

On her part, Helen Vio, of Barangay San Agustin, Valderrama, Antique is also thankful for the livelihood that was given to her family.

Vio said she will raise the cow until its ready to be sold so that they could have enough savings for the education of their children.//dswd6//Montesa G. Caoyonan