Cagayan de Oro City – The Department of Social Welfare and Development recently reported that more than 30,000 beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, particularly those benefitting from the Program since 2008 and 2009, have now moved their households’ well-being from “survival” to “subsistence.”

Using the Social Welfare Indicator (SWI) tool used by the DSWD, three waves of assessment were done to in 2011, 2012, and 2013, having a baseline data of 57,519 households under the first wave. The assessment provides a clear data on the movement of the poor households’ well-being from “survival,” to “subsistence,” to “self-sufficiency” by gauging their economic efficiency and social adequacy.

According to Atty. Araceli F. Solamillo, Regional Director of DSWD Field Office X, the positive result shows that along with the social protection programs being provided to the beneficiaries, the households’ resiliency against poverty and gaining a sense of understanding on how to combat it was contributory to this improvement.

The SWI tool assesses each household’s employment and employable skills, income, and social insurance, health, nutrition, sanitation, hygiene, housing and other living conditions, educational skills of household members, family activities, and role performance of household members.

Qualified Pantawid Pamilya households are determined through the assessment of “Listahanan,” the National Household Targeting System of the national government that identifies who, where, and how vulnerable poor households are in the Philippines. Each program beneficiary is able to receive a maximum of P1,400 monthly cash grant mainly for their children’s education and health needs.

To continue this progress, the DSWD is committed to raise the well-being of 83,333 Pantawid Pamilya households in Region X, from subsistence to self-sufficiency, in 2014. According to Solamillo, the DSWD will continue to implement social protection programs focusing on these poor households, ensuring that each is able to benefit at least two social welfare and development interventions from the government.###smu