Palm
Gil, Talaingod, Davao del Norte –With
a mere Php 300,000.00-worth of solar home lighting system and two solar-powered
street lights, remote Sitio Lumabag here has started to be vibrant at night
time.
Mobilized
by Kalahi-CIDSS PAMANA (PAyapa at MAsaganang PamayaNAn) and the local
government unit, the community solar lighting system was inaugurated on
September 9.
Under
this project, each household here was provided with a 2.5-watt solar panel, a
12-volt battery/charger and two LED lamps; while the street lights were powered
with 50-watt panels and 12-volt battery chargers.
Gone
are the nights when the 41 families endure dark, quiet nights with only a few
kerosene lamps lighting the mountainous night scape.
Tribal
chieftain Datu Doming Manlaunan, a father of seven, a Kalahi-CIDSS (Kapit-Bisig
Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services)
and a Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiary, recounted how difficult
it was for them to survive countless evenings in their lightless homes.
“We
deliver our goods as early as possible to the market so we would be home before
the night falls,” shared Datu Doming.
He
said it takes almost an hour to travel through habal-habal (single
motorcycle) to reach the village center.
Never
did the old folks in the sitio think that DSWD Kalahi-CIDSS would
reach their area considering the hilly, treacherous road.
But
long before the project was realized, most of the tribe members admitted they
lack drive and aggressiveness to participate.
Their
indifference was aggravated with the perpetual dispute between armed insurgent
groups and the government military. They were resigned to the thought that it
would be impossible for them to attain a better
life.
“Sa
una, kung naa mangadto diri na taga gobyerno, kadaghanan sa akong mga ka tribo,
dili sila gusto atubangon. Mahadlok sila basin mailad sila unya pangkuhaon ang
ilang mga yuta (Before, when officers from the government would visit,
most of my brethren would not entertain them, wary to be deceived and scared
that their lands would be taken away),” said Datu Doming.
Desiree
Jacob, Deputy Area Coordinator of Kalahi-CIDSS in Talaingod, said the tribal
folks are overwhelmed because they were given the chance to identify the
project that they needed most during the Barangay Participatory Situation
Analysis (PSA), a social preparation phase of Kalahi-CIDSS.
“The
most difficult part of our journey as Area Coordinating Team was to convince
the IP villagers to participate. They degraded themselves as illiterate with no
capabilities to acquire and carry out such responsibility,” Jacob added.
Datu
Doming proudly declared, “Kaya namo ang pagbag-o tungod kay gitagaan mi
sa gobyerno og oportunidad nga makatabang sa pagtukod og mga proyekto (We
can change and improve our lives because government provided us the opportunity
to participate in building community projects).”
Led by the Department of Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD), KALAHI-CIDSS NCDDP is the expansion into a national scale of operations
of the community-driven development (CDD) approach, which was tried and proven
effective by Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated
Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS). It targets to cover 847 of the
poorest municipalities in the country.
PAMANA,
one of the modalities of KALAHI CIDSS-NCDDP, is the Philippine government's
program and framework for peace and development. It continues to implement
projects in nine more municipalities in the region.
The
three barangays in Talaingod will be granted 15 sub-projects in the 3rd cycle
of PAMANA implementation. (DSWD/Julie Ace Brandon F. Ramos/ccd)
No comments:
Post a Comment