The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is set to include some 700 street dwellers in the implementation of its Expanded Conditional Cash Transfer (ECCT) Project which aims to contribute in the reduction of homeless street families in the National Capital Region (NCR).
The ECCT project provides a complete package of assistance to the street families that are not limited to education and health grants, but also include responsive housing programs with access to social services and economic opportunities for the improvement of their living conditions.
“This project hopes to strengthen the coverage of the Pantawid Pamilya Program by targeting the homeless street families who were not included in the list of beneficiaries of the regular Pantawid Pamilya program,” said DSWD-NCR Regional Director Ma. Alicia S. Bonoan.
Bonoan explained that the target beneficiaries of the ECCT project are the homeless street families with children who spend most of their time on the street living, working and playing, and their families have often been homeless for a long period of time.
“Many of these families live in pushcarts, moving from one place to another around the city and earn their living on the streets,” Bonoan added.
Under the ECCT project, eligible households shall receive Php300.00/month per child or a maximum of Php1,400.00/month while the health grant is PhP500.00/month per household. These grants are released every month to the beneficiary household while undergoing case management and preparing them for mainstreaming to the regular Pantawid Pamilya program.
Aside from the cash grants for health and education, families may also be provided with complete package of services based on the needs assessment of the social workers, such as transportation assistance to their provinces of origin, transition allowance and house rental assistance for families who do not have provinces to return to in the amount of P5,000.00 per family.
As part of the social preparation, Bonoan said that social workers and welfare assistants would talk to the street dwellers to encourage them to attend group assemblies as venue to conduct orientation and commitment check, updating/validation, registration and enrolment, signing of oath of commitment, and distribution and orientation on the proper use of ID cards.
As of August 14, some 436 street families from the cities of Manila, Quezon, Pasay, Caloocan, Marikina, San Juan, Muntinlupa, Mandaluyong, Caloocan, Malabon, Pasig, Parañaque and Makati have been registered for the project. An on-going registration is being conducted until August 24 to complete the 700 target street families who have been identified during the rapid appraisal of street dwellers conducted in November 2010 by DSWD in partnership with the Council for the Welfare of Children and the Local Government Units.
Initial cash pay-out to the ECCT-HSF beneficiaries will be held tomorrow, August 16 at San Andres Sports Complex, Malate, Manila. ###