LAGUNA PROVINCE, 14 May – Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNSs) are commendable recipients of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP), for they painstakingly work as frontliners and unceasingly risk their own lives in delivering nutrition services to the people (especially the marginalized and vulnerable residents in the communities during the lockdown period).
In a brief interview, Ms. Lotis Canales, an active Barangay Nutrition Scholar (BNS) since 2014 in Barangay Mamala in Sariaya, Quezon, was overjoyed after receiving the SAP cash assistance on 21 April 2020 from Barangay Mamala in Sariaya, Quezon. She said, “napakalaking tulong po ng SAP aid para sa akin at sa aking pamilya dahil sa ngayon po ang aking asawa, bagama’t OFW, ay nahinto sa kaniyang trabaho dahil sa COVID-19 pandemic. Sa tulong po ng ayuda ay nakabili na po kami ng mga pangunahin naming pangangailangan.”
The BNS frontliners who are our nutrition heroes are also affected by the economic impact of the Covid-19 lockdown. Providing adequate resources for their families is an important facet of the promotion of nutrition programs.
Initially, the DSWD Memorandum Circular No. 4 ( the supplemental memorandum to RA 11469 or “Bayanihan to heal as One Act”) only enumerated the Barangay Health Workers (BHWs), Barangay Tanods, and Barangay Day Care Workers as SAP target beneficiaries. However, the said memorandum created disappointment among the BNS who are likewise financially challenged and who have been working tirelessly alongside other health and nutrition frontliners.
In response to the concerns of the BNS, the National Nutrition Council (NNC) coordinated with DSWD (particularly, the Office of Special Concerns) to enumerate as well the BNSs as beneficiaries of SAP. In addition, DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año recommended to the NTF COVID-19 the inclusion of the BNSs as target beneficiaries of the SAP, subject to the necessary screening procedures in accordance to the DILG-DBM-DOLE-DSWD-DA-DTI-DOF JMC No. 1 s. 2020.
Furthermore, a press release was issued by DSWD adapting the DILG recommendation to include eligible families of BHWs, BNSs, DCWs and Tanods as target beneficiaries of the emergency subsidy under the Bayanihan Fund: Tulong Laban sa COVID-19 Social Amelioration Program of the government.
The RA 11469 is the aid for the increasing demand for financial support to families greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was passed into law on 24 March 2020. The policy issued aims to provide emergency cash subsidy amounting to P5,000 to P8,000 per family/individual who qualifies in the conditionalities thereby creating the Social Amelioration Program (SAP). The assistance is intended for low-income class families or those in the subsistence economy or workers in the informal economy that has lost their source of income due to enhanced community quarantine implemented for almost two (2) months to date.
In the DSWD Memorandum Circular No. 4 (on the guidelines on the provision of SAP that was signed last 30 March 2020) by Secretary Rolando Joselito D. Bautista, priority is given to the 4Ps beneficiaries and informal economy workers such as those directly hired or occasional workers, home workers, employees affected by “no work, no pay” policy, among others. Also included are the households with members belonging to any of the vulnerable sectors such as the Senior Citizens, persons with disability (PWDs), solo-parents, sub-minimum wage earners, among others.
By: Zarah Clarice T. Megino, RND
