Some  15,188 survivors of Typhoon Yolanda from Eastern Visayas benefited from the Cash-for-Work (CFW) Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) that started on November 24 and is still on-going.

DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said, “The CFW program is part of our early recovery efforts to introduce normalcy to affected families in the region.”

She added that more than the relief distribution, those who are able are being engaged in the important work of rebuilding the area.

Prior to the CFW, DSWD initially implemented Food-for-Work (FFW)  from November 10 – 23 where beneficiaries were given food packs in exchange of helping in repacking and distributing relief goods.

Under the CFW, the beneficiaries are given work according to their capacity such as loading and unloading of relief goods, repacking of goods, food preparation, cleaning of debris, coastal clean-up, canal dredging, and communal gardening, among others.

Other ‘Yolanda’ victims assisted in the inventory of damaged properties.

Qualified beneficiaries are those 18 years old and above, able and willing to be assigned where they will be needed the most.  Areas of assignment are in the different relief and rehabilitation hubs of the Department in Tacloban City, Isabel, Ormoc City, Catbalogan and Guiuan, as well as at community projects in Basey in Western Samar and Burauen in Leyte.

Each worker is paid daily an average of P260 for eight hours of work.

To date, DSWD has released P22,055,766 for the implementation of the program.

CFW of other groups

Sec. Soliman also cited other organizations implementing CFW programs  to affected families in the region.

Among these are the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), whose CFW Program targets to cover around 200,000 beneficiaries and the Tzu Chi Foundation, which gave P500 to each of its CFW beneficiaries.  ### January 22, 2014