Manila: The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) have allocated PHP114.2 million for a project aimed at providing livelihoods to 12,884 individuals, thereby easing the impact of food insecurity and water scarcity caused by disasters in the Ilocos Region this year.
According to Philippines News Agency, beneficiaries of Project LAWA (Local Adaptation to Water Access) and BINHI (Breaking Insufficiency through Nutritious Harvest for the Impoverished) will receive comprehensive training in disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, and practical water usage through both cash-for-training and cash-for-work components.
'Partner-beneficiaries will undergo three stages within the 20-day cash-for-training and cash-for-work program,' Dianne Keena Dacanay, DSWD Ilocos Risk Resiliency Program (RRP) focal person, said in a phone interview on Wednesday.
The LAWA and BINHI programs fall under RRP's Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Disaster Risk Reduction, aligning with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s focus on addressing poverty and hunger in communities affected by calamities.
In the first stage of climate action, partner beneficiaries will attend three-day sessions on disaster risk reduction and receive program orientation. The second stage involves project implementation through a 15-day cash-for-work program, encompassing activities for both water sufficiency and food security.
These projects include building small farm reservoirs (LAWA), maintaining multipurpose water infrastructure, and implementing aquaponics, hydroponics, and aquaculture activities, among others. Food security initiatives, on the other hand, include urban and community vegetable gardening, integrated farming, planting disaster-resilient crops and fruit trees, mangrove planting, vermicomposting, and related activities.
Dacanay said the final stage is the sustainability strategy, where partner-beneficiaries will undergo a two-day cash-for-training focused on livelihoods related to food and water security.
'They are doing a community project that will provide a source of water and a community garden that will have nutritious vegetables so that they will have a source of affordable or free food in their communities,' she explained.
Last year, members of the Sitio Atik Farmers Association, Inc. in Caba town, La Union, benefited from a man-made spring that served as a water source for their farm crops and communal garden, constructed under the BINHI and LAWA projects.
