Monday, October 27, 2014
Barangay Luop, Diplahan is mainly an
agricultural land with farming as its main source of income for most of the
residents. Unfortunately, apart from the fact that the crops that are being
planted take too long a time to yield, the barangay is also one of the 11
listed under the Flood-prone Barangays in Diplahan, Zamboanga Sibugay.
Moreover, only at least 25% of the total population have extra sources of
income meaning that more than 70% of the households rely solely on farming
(which is seasonal) to provide for the basic needs of the family.
The community exposure prior, the
barangay residents identified lack of alternative sources of livelihood as 2nd
of the most pressing problems they are facing as a whole. Although Team Luop
admits that this is a tough task to fulfil, there is no way we could deny that
lack of income will impact the community people’s health and health seeking
behaviors in a big way. In lieu with this, the Team considered all the options
to be able to provide at least half of the households with no alternative
sources of income with one, and this began with the conceptualization of the
Kabuhayan Patrol Team.
Headed by their project coordinator,
Mark Anthony Paredes, the newly formed Kabuhayan Patrol Team (KPT) composed of
the Barangay Captain (chairman), Barangay Kagawad
on Agriculture (vice-chair), and 6 purok leaders, the group began their quest
in search for appropriate alternative sources of income that most of the
community people will benefit from. Last October 10, 2014, at seven (7) in the
evening, the KPT gathered for a brainstorming of ideas on how to come up with
the list of alternative sources they could choose from. Knowing that the
community leaders know the capabilities of their people the best, and knowing
that it is they who see the growing needs of the community first hand, the
project coordinator initiated this event to be able to formulate a game plan on
the different activities to come in the following exposure.
Immediately after the brainstorming,
wherein the core team listed several agencies they could tap into, Mr. Paredes
went about downtown Diplahan to check on the different agencies the core team
listed. Among them were Department of Agricultur and Department of Labor. Plans
are also being made to look into what TESDA could offer, seeing that a few of
the residents of Luop have been graduates of TESDA themselves (courses such as
haircutting and cooking).
