For 45-year-old Ma. Gracia Paguia, it took just one survey to change her family’s life.
“Napakahirap talaga ng buhay. Kahit anong gawin namin, hindi talaga sumasapat ang kita namin para sa aming mga pangangailangan,” she shared.
With six children, Gracia struggles to budget her husband’s income as a construction worker for all their family’s needs. With this, she admits that they cannot support their every need, particularly the education of their children.
About six years later after the survey, Gracia now works as a barangay health worker and is able to help her husband with the family’s finances. Her elder children have finished high school and they get better grades, too.
For Gracia, all of these started when she was interviewed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) regarding their family’s living condition in 2009.
Listahanan targeting system
In 2009, the DSWD conducted a house-to-house assessment of households nationwide to identify who and where the poor are through its Listahanan Targeting System, previously known as the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).
In the CALABARZON Region, Gracia’s family is one of the 389,788 households identified as poor based on the said assessment.
The DSWD uses the list of identified poor households in targeting beneficiaries of its different programs and services for the poor. The agency also promotes the use of this database to local government units and other national government agencies in targeting beneficiaries for their respective programs and services.
A bigger blessing
In 2012, Gracia’s family became a beneficiary of the DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, which uses the Listahanan database of poor households in the selection of beneficiaries.
According to Gracia, this opened a lot of opportunities for their family.
“Napakalaking tulong po sa pamilyang katulad namin ang Pantawid Pamilya. Dati, alam naming hindi namin kayang suportahan ang mga anak namin hanggang high school dahil hindi talaga sapat ang kita. Pero dahil sa tulong pinansyal ng programa, nasisiguro naming nasusuportahan ang pag-aaral nila,” she shared.
Further, Gracia shared that because they are now able to support most of the educational needs of her children, she saw them being more eager to go to school.
“Kung dati problema namin ang mabababang grades nila, ngayon hindi na. ‘Yung mga nakatatanda kong anak, nakatapos na rin sa high school,” she shared.
Contrary to what she hears from others that the Pantawid Pamilya teaches beneficiaries to be lazy, Gracia says she learned to be a more responsible parent because of the lessons brought by their monthly Family Development Sessions.
“Natutunan ko na dapat kaming mga kababaihan ay tumulong sa mga asawa namin para itaguyod ang aming mga pamilya. Hindi pala dapat nasa bahay lang kami,” she shared.
Today, Gracia works as a barangay health worker. Despite the small allowance she receives, she’s proud that she’s not only helping her family now but the rest of the residents in their community as well.
Giving back
In the ongoing assessment of the Listahanan Targeting System this 2015, Gracia knows she has to do something besides opening her house to the DSWD enumerators and being assessed again.
“Alam ko ang kahalagan ng survey na ito at kung paano ito nakakatulong sa mga talagang nangangailangan. Kaya nakikiisa ako sa pamamagitan ng pagtuturo sa mga enumerators ng mga kabahayan na sa tingin ko ay mahihirap,” she shared.
For Gracia, what she’s doing right now is a small thing as compared to the great opportunities provided to her family.
“Napakalaking tulong talaga ng mga programang ito, pero mas malaking tulong kung ang lahat ng pamilya ay magsisikap na tugunan ang kanilang mga pangangailangan,” she added.#