Gifting the poorest of the poor

BENCHWARMER
Ramon S. Dacawi

Groups and individuals planning to flesh out the yuletide spirit by sharing their bounty with the most needy can now get a validated listing of Baguio’s poorest of the poor for their choice of gift package beneficiaries.

The regional and city social welfare and development offices have furnished the city’s barangay councils the lists of the most needy households within their jurisdictions. The lists were the results of two surveys conducted since last year to pinpoint targets in the national poverty reduction program.

City social welfare and development officer Betty Fangasan said charitable organizations and persons can use the listings in coordination with barangay officials to determine their target gift recipients.

“Barangay officials and residents are helping validate such listings and having them as guides would prevent overlapping of efforts and result in better distribution of gift packages for the needy,” Fangasan said. “A group can target the first 10 households or families in the list while the next group may take on the next 10, and so forth.”

And what would be practical to put into the gift packages? “Rice, milk and other basic food items,” Fangasan said. “The volume and items may vary, depending on the needs, number and ages of members of a household, and these can be validated with the help of the barangay council.”

This means that some packages can be personalized or focused , to address the wishes or special needs of some household members.. Say a toy airplane for a kid dreaming of one day becoming a pilot and a doll for his sister.

Or a month’s insulin or tablet maintenance dose for a child diabetic. An old, unused wheelchair for a grandmother. A pair of crutches or a walker for a household member who had lost a limb or recovering from a stroke.

Distribution may be through or in tandem with the barangay council.It can be done anonymously, with the designated presenter in Santa outfit led by a barangay councilman or tanod to an indigent family’s door one evening.

“Kanino po kami magpapasalamat?,” a child, a mother or a father receiving the gift for the household may ask. “Sa Poong Maykapal po,” Santa would reply.

As noted by novelist Richard Paul Evans, author of the best-selling Christmas Box trilogy, “The greatest acts are done without audience, plaque or ceremony.”

Still, even those opting to give anonymously are asked to coordinate with the barangays and the city social welfare office for recording and monitoring of their charitable, albeit unpublished, acts of goodness.

Baguio’s poor stand at 2,102 households, as per the survey under the “National Household Targeting System for Poverty Alleviation” conducted this year by the Cordillera regional social welfare office. The list was being validated last week with the city social welfare office and the barangays.

Fangasan said another 663 households from another survey last year were added for a total of 2,6765 households. Expectedly, Irisan, the city’s biggest and most populous barangays, topped the list with 249 households under the “number of identified poor” column of this year’s survey result.

Others reflecting three figures were Asin Road with 124 and Fairbiew with 108. They were trailed by San Luis Village – 86, Pinget – 70, Sto. Tomas Proper – 61, Bakakeng Central – 59, East Quirino Hill – 53, Dominican-Mirador – 50, Camp 7 – 45, Dontogan – 43, and Loakan Apugan 41.

Thirteen barangays, mostly those within or near the central business district, had no listing as of last week as no resident had filled up the on-demand application form.

The filled-up household assessment form used reflects each household roster of members, number of nuclear families in each household, number of bed/sleeping rooms, make and status of house and lot occupied, type of toilet facility, water and electricity connections, types of appliances, disability among members, educational attainment and occupations of members, dependence on member working abroad, displacement of members and types of support programs received from government and non-government organizations.

Fangasan expressed hope that agencies, groups and individuals who haven’t reached out to the city’s poorest of the poor may yet find the time to do so this yuletide.
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Organizers are hopeful, too, that folk and country music lovers among us would fight off the Christmas chill by filling up the covered court of DPS Barangay evening of Dec. 21 for a concert for a cause.

Proceeds will be for two ailing residents of the barangay: 31-year old Laluz Awal who is undergoing twice-a-week hemodialysis treatment for kidney failure and 13-year old Mark Anthony Viray, who is battling Hodgkins lymphoma.

Mark Anthony, an off-and-on taxi driver’s son, dreams of one day flying an airplane.
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