Poverty exists anywhere—be it in urban or rural areas.

While it is a fact that most of the poor families are residing in rural areas, it also cannot be denied that many of those who live in urban areas are lacking not only in their basic needs but also in basic social services.

This is why the Department of Social Welfare and Development decided to implement the Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) in urban areas after about 10 years of serving the rural communities.

KALAHI-CIDSS deputy regional project manager Leo Quintilla said the first urban project will be implemented in the two areas of Kabankalan City in Negros Occidental, particularly in Hilamonan and Binicuil.

Quintilla revealed that Kabankalan City was chosen as pilot area for the urban KALAHI because of its high poverty incidence and inaccessibility to basic social services. Aside from having high poverty incidence of 33 percent, the city is also facing other problems like issues on land tenure and its vulnerability to disasters.

A site viability test and potential problem analysis was already conducted and currently the regional office is waiting for the go signal from the Central Office to proceed with the project.

During their initial meetings with the potential communities and barangays, Quintilla said they were assured of full support. The local government of Kabankalan City is also very much willing to cooperate and give its counterpart for the implementation of the project.  The city had also sent its ‘enrolment form’ stating their intent to accept the KALAHI-CIDDS project.

Quintilla said the community will be the one to decide what project will be implemented in their area, based on what they really need. From the project’s conceptualization to its implementation, he added community involvement and participation is really required because they will be the ones who will be benefiting from the project.

During the last 10 years, Kalahi-CIDSS has engaged 36 local government units and more than 800 barangays in Region 6.

Most importantly, Quintilla said it has empowered more than 16,000 community volunteers, provided more than 1.3 billion grants to more than 1,500 community sub-projects, facilitated new modes of community-LGU dialogs and evolved key lessons on CDD theory and frameworks./DSWD6/Wenna A. Berondo