At least 15,000 survivors of typhoon ‘Yolanda’ (Haiyan) in the Eastern Visayas region have been given temporary jobs under the government’s cash-for-work (CFW) program.
To date, some 15,188 persons were given work based on 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.
The program being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Eastern Visayas began November 24 last year4. CFW is ongoing in the typhoon-stricken region, the agency said.
To date, DSWD has released P22.056 million to implement the program.
The CFW program is part of our early recovery efforts to introduce normalcy to affected families in the region,” DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman said.
She added that more than relief distribution, some beneficiaries are engaged in rebuilding the area.
Prior to the CFW, DSWD initially implemented Food-for-Work (FFW) from November 10 to 23, 2013 with beneficiaries given food packs in exchange of helping in repacking and distributing relief goods.
Other ‘Yolanda’ victims assisted in the inventory of damaged properties.
Qualified beneficiaries under the CFW program are those 18 years old and above, and 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 DSWD in Tacloban City, Isabel and Ormoc City in Leyte, Catbalogan City in Samar, and Guiuan in Eastern Samar, as well as in 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.
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 200,000 beneficiaries and the Tzu Chi Foundation, which gave P500 to each of its CFW beneficiaries.

Source: Manila Bulletin - January 27, 2014