PALO, Leyte - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Eastern Visayas held the Pugay Tagumpay-Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) Graduation Ceremony on August 24, 2022 at the Tacloban City Astrodome.

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is a human development measure of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, to improve the health, nutrition, and the education of children aged 0-18. It is patterned after the conditional cash transfer (CCT) schemes in Latin American and African countries, which have lifted millions of people around the world from poverty.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is the lead government agency of the 4Ps. The program has dual objectives as the flagship poverty alleviation program through social assistance and social development.

By social assistance means giving monetary support to extremely poor families to respond to their immediate needs. While social development means breaking the intergenerational poverty cycle by investing in the health, nutrition and education of poor children through programs such as health check-ups for pregnant women and children aged 0 to 5; deworming of schoolchildren aged 6 to 14; enrollment of children in daycare, elementary, and secondary schools; and family development sessions.

The 4Ps has two types of cash grants that are given out to household-beneficiaries: a) health grant: P500 per household every month, or a total of P6,000 every year; and b) education grant: P300 per child every month for ten months, or a total of P3,000 every year (a household may register a maximum of three children for the program).

In order to receive the abovementioned subsidies, all the succeeding conditions must be met by the household-beneficiaries: 1) Pregnant women must avail pre- and post-natal care, and be attended during childbirth by a trained professional; 2) Parents or guardians must attend the family development sessions, which include topics on responsible parenting, health, and nutrition; 3) Children aged 0-5 must receive regular preventive health check-ups and vaccines; 4) Children aged 6-14 must receive deworming pills twice a year; and 5) Children-beneficiaries aged 3-18 must enroll in school, and maintain an attendance of at least 85% of class days every month.

To date, a total of 1,843 household will be successfully graduating from being 4Ps beneficiaries. The program helps beneficiaries become self-sufficient and eventually be delisted from the poverty alleviation program.

The graduation ceremony is attended by no less than Assistant Secretary Florentino Y. Loyola, Jr. and DSWD8 Regional Director Grace Q. Subong. The ceremony was also attended by Regional Directors and Heads, Non-Government Organizations, business sectors and other stakeholders.

The 1,843 households-graduates has its own success story to tell as they move forward to being self-sustaining families. #RNPC-CPD