“To be able to be instruments in giving hope to the poor” is one of the things that Mr.Kenneth Samson, an Area Coordinator under the Department of Social Welfare and Development, instills in his mind and heart as he monitors his team in three municipalities in the Province of Lanao del Norte.

Indeed, to be one of the Area Coordinators for the Listahanan Second Round Assessment is not a joke. It entails a lot of determination and responsibility in making sure that the team is able to conduct the assessments accurately and on time. For Kenneth, sacrificing personal relationships even becomes a part of his being an Area Coordinator.

Listahanan is the data management system that the Department uses in identifying who and where the poor are . Partner Agencies and various stakeholders who have engaged with the Department of Social Welfare and Development through a Memorandum of Agreement have also been utilizing the Listahanan data since the first round of assessment , which was conducted in 2009 wherein, over three hundred thousand families all over the region were identified as poor.

Vernalyn Delgado, an Area Coordinator in Lanao del Norte, also shares that “one of the challenges I have is that, most of the enumerators assigned in my team are Maranao Muslims who are on fasting for the Ramadan. This posed a challenge for me considering that I have to encourage them to go on with the assessments despite their empty stomachs and, it just so happen that our hinterland barangays in our areas are really remote entailing us to hike kilometers.”

“Oftentimes, it takes even half of the day to reach a part of a barangay or a sitio and assess only one or two households. Time and again, and much as I want to give due respect and understanding of their tradition, I have to painstakingly remind them of our commitment to reach our target and comply with what we are obliged to do for the Second Round Assessment.”

Indeed, there a a lot of stories behind the Second Round Assessment. For Al Nor Paingco Limpao, he chose to be hired again as an enumerator rather than to be hired as Area Supervisor or Area Coordinator (he was an enumerator during the Soc Pen validation) since he finds conducting household assessments a very fulfilling job — to see people smile once they arrive in the barangays which, according to the barangay folks, seeing people from the government visit their humble homes and ask them a lot of questions is proof enough that the government cares for them and that they have high hopes that someday soon, they will be able to avail of programs and services from the government for the good of their families.

To be able to be an instrument in identifying the poor who need the most of the government’s programs and services is indeed more than enough for those who understood the significance of being part of the nationwide household assessments.

Buchairan Mamalampac, a Person With Disability, never looks at her condition as a hindrance in becoming one of the enumerators assigned in the municipality of Sultan Naga Dimaporo (SND), one of the remote and interior municipality of Lanao del Norte.

Ms. Novalyn Tocmohan-Matuan, the Area Coordinator of the municipality of SND, commends her team in which Buchairan is a part of. For her teamwork, concern and coordination among the group forms a big part to the success of the household assessments. “Our team has 27 enumerators and they really support each other, same as with the Area Supervisors who directly oversees the operation and activities of the group.”

One can see the commitment and dedication of the workers in the field as they encounter various experiences and challenges as they go about conducting the household assessments. For them, commitment goes beyond the regular hours of work , hiking for hours just to assess a household or two on top of a mountain, risking their lives in the wee hours of the night just to make a callback, starting the household assessments very early at dawn before the rain pours, and reviewing their FAFs late at night.

As Mr. Beethoven Allena puts it, to be part of the assessment, one has to have the determination to go on despite the odds and sacrifices.

In a radio program advocating the Second Round Assessment, Mr. Jong Pamisa and Mr. Allena continues to encourage and lift up the spirits of the enumerators and commends their efforts as frontliners of the operation.

As Area Coordinators, they have witnessed how the workers labor in the field and they really appreciate the efforts of their team members who also try their best to come up with accurate, factual,and complete data of households.

For them, data gathering can bring a great impact and opportunity for poor families in the near future, and their performance in the assessment would greatly affect the future of the families since this would also be the basis for identifying families who need the most of the government’s and stakeholders’ programs and services.

The smiles and the warm welcome of the people are proof enough that they are receptive to the government’s efforts to reach out to them and be able to work out with them in determining what services they need to uplift their living situations.

The DSWD targets 793,989 households in Northern Mindanao to be included in the second round household assessment of the Listahanan.

Written by Mitzie S. Santiago,DSWD