The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is ready to assist poor families with farmers, forest workers, and farm laborers deal with the temporary loss of income or livelihood due to the El Nino phenomenon or dry spell.

The Department has already submitted its action plan to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for funding. The plan will run until June 2016 with a funding requirement of more than P6.7 billion.

Based on the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction or Listahanan, there are 2,504,545 families with farmers, forest workers, and farm laborers nationwide who are expected to be affected by the drought.

Under the action plan, DSWD will provide P10,000 livelihood assistance each to the target families. It will also implement eight days of Cash-for-Work (CFW) per month to 50% of the target families.

The CFW is a short-term measure to help the small farmers, forest workers, and farm laborers during the lean months caused by the El Niño phenomenon.  Under this program, beneficiaries will receive training, render community service utilizing their newly-learned skills, and at the same time earn daily income which is equivalent to 75% of the regional minimum wage.

Some of the activities under the CFW are tree-planting, reforestation, coastal cleaning, dredging of waterways and canals, and repair of damaged community facilities due to disasters.

“While we are waiting for the approval of the action plan, we have already downloaded P3 million each from our regular funds for CFW to Regions III, IX, X, and XI, where the effects of the drought are now being felt,” DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said.

Other regions are also assessing their situation so they can appropriately respond. The DSWD is ready to provide initial support.

Furthermore, DSWD has an adequate supply of family food packs ready for nationwide distribution to the target families. ###