DSWD assures food packs ready for El Niño-hit families
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Thursday, Feb. 15 assured families who continue to bear the brunt of the El Niño that the agency is ready to assist them in dealing with its effects.
DSWD Undersecretary for Disaster Response Management Group (DRMG) Diana Rose Cajipe said the department will ensure food security by providing family food packs to the areas affected by El Niño.
“Malaking tulong po ang mga naka-preposition natin na goods. We are talking about the food packs, but aside from that, the regional offices ng DSWD are open to any referrals for those already affected by the El Niño,” Cajipe said in a media forum.
Special Assistant to the Secretary for DRMG and Concurrent Director of National Resource and Logistics Management Bureau Leo Quintilla said there are 849 warehouses across the country.
“What is important right now is we are doing the relief prepositioning agreement with our local government units. We also provide capacity building sa ating mga partners to ensure na ma-maintain natin yung quality of our food and non-food items na naka-preposition sa kanilang mga warehouses (We also provide capacity building to our partners to ensure that we maintain the quality of our food and non-food items prepositioned in their warehouses),” Quintilla pointed out.
The capacity building activities include monitoring of expiration, tagging, proper storage, and quality control of food packs to ensure that the goods being distributed to disaster-affected families are safe to consume.
Aside from the prepositioning of food packs, DSWD Assistant Secretary for Strategic Communications and spokesperson Romel Lopez said the agency is collaborating with the Department of Agriculture and the United Nations-World Food Program in the implementation of Project Local Adaptation to Water Access or Project LAWA in select municipalities in the provinces of Ifugao, Antique, and Davao de Oro.
Project LAWA aims to alleviate drought and dry spells caused by El Niño by establishing 90 small farm reservoirs in selected municipalities.
Residents in the pilot areas receive financial assistance through the agency’s cash-for-work and cash-for-training programs in exchange for their contributions to the construction of alternative water resources.