P480K allotted to assist NGO project for elderly

The city government has allocated P480,000 as its counterpart fund for the implementation of the support services project by a non-government organization to benefit sick and frail senior citizens who cannot avail of medical services due to scarcity of income.

The city council, in its regular session last week, approved two separate proposed resolutions, by councilor Eduardo Rama, one appropriating the amount and the other authorizing the mayor to sign a memorandum of agreement with the Central Visayas Association for Volunteer Effort organization for the financial aid.

The CVAVE, represented by its president Martiniana Mercado, said the project dubbed as "Integrated Support Services for Older Persons" is aimed at helping "sickly and frail older persons who have meager sources of income and whose children are not financially capable of giving them support."

She said the project was also aimed to strengthen retirees and senior citizens organizations in ten target barangays by helping them identify problems of the elderly in their areas, and formulate plans to solve these problems.

The CVAVE said it needed P591,300 for the implementation of its pilot project in the Central Visayas area including ten city barangays such as Lahug, Caputhaw, Talamban, Carreta, Sambag I, Mambaling, Pardo, Mabolo, Labangon and Inayawan.

But the CVAVE and its other sources can only afford to shoulder P110,500, said Mercado.

The project, to be carried out from the second week of December this year to November next year, has three components: Capability building and planning workshop of senior citizens with CVAVE members; training of caregivers for older persons; and project implementation and supervision.

The participants in the project are 15 representatives from the city's Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs, Department of Social Welfare and Services, barangay councils, City Health Department, Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The intended beneficiaries will include identified 150 older persons, 140 caregivers, and 10 senior citizens' organizations from participating barangays. - Cristina C. Birondo