DITSA-AN RAMAIN, Lanao del Sur--Vulnerable communities and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Marawi City and as far as the province of Lanao del Sur continue to benefit from programs aiming to alleviate their lives.
This, as the international non-government organization Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW)-Philippines focuses their intervention, especially on recipients from the aforementioned populace.
IRW-Philippines area programme manager Sittie Jamairah Disomimba said one of the programs they implement now is the one dubbed Sustaining Transformative and Resilient Initiatives in Vulnerable Communities (STRIVEC) in Ranao Philippines which is funded by IRW-Canada and intends to host affected residents of the 2017 siege and the ones most impacted by any crisis.
She said this holds three components, to wit, education, livelihood, and disaster risk reduction (DRR).
“Lahat iyan [All of those], the DRR in particular, are already done. Iyong [the] livelihood, we started at least in January and we will continue that after election kasi mahirap umikot [because it is difficult to go around]. Sa [for] education, continuing until now,” said Disomimba.
The area programme manager further highlighted their educational assistance as their commitment to the children in target areas by providing P250 worth of monthly allowance for them for three years.
As part of this support, they conducted on March 28-29 the payout of allowances good for four months to 600 students in the seven schools in the municipality of Ditsa-an Ramain wherein four were madrasah schools and the remaining three were under the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education.
Apart from the allowances, the IRW-Philippines has accordingly handed over at the start of every school year the necessary school supplies and kits both for learners and teachers.
Disomimba also bared that they are currently in the second phase of the program in which they hope to cover as many qualified beneficiaries as possible.
With the initiative still pursued, the organization hopes this shall be pushed as well by the local government units even without their existence.
“Sana mayroong ganitong mga activity kahit walang international NGOs. Sa amin kasi, iyan ang kulang dito,” said Disomimba.
[I hope these activities will be implemented even without the international NGOs. That is because, for us, what is lacking here.] (CRG/PIA-Lanao del Sur)
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