FORMER 4PS BENEFICIARY FROM NORTH COTABATO FINDS SUCCESS AS BALUT VENDOR AND SUPPLIER “IN PAINTING
our dream to real canvas of life, we need hard work and perseverance, trust, strong determination coupled with sincere prayer,” this is how Mae Joy Cadangin-Cornelio, 30, describes her journey as a family and one of the members of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) from Barangay Dualing in the municipality of Aleosan, North Cotabato.
Mae shared that her husband Ever used to be an all around worker whose jobs included tilling rice as a tenant farmer, making charcoal for living, and being seasonal laborer just to make ends meet. “A lot of people put us down because we are poor. We need to work hard to earn for our daily needs. That is why, we really wished to be one of the beneficiaries of 4Ps, and God allowed us to become part of the program in 2012.”
The negative criticism the family of four received from people in their neighborhood became their motivation and inspiration to go on living and find the right livelihood for them to thrive.
“When my family became a 4Ps member, we were very happy and felt lucky. We did not need to worry anymore about the extra allowance and school needs of our children because of the regular support from the government,” Mae said.
Based on a briefer of Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) is patterned after other developing countries countries’ conditional cash transfer programs which aims to invest in the health and education of poor Filipinos with children ages from 0 t0 18 years old. It is a part of the national government’s human development program.
TURNING A TEMPORARY SETBACK INTO A BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
“We had been receiving the cash grant from February 2012 until February of 2013, until the DSWD required all the members to use the cash card instead of the over-the-counter cash grant. Since the cash card is processed in Metro Manila and due to the bulk of cards that needed to be sent to the provinces, it took us almost four years before we finally received it in 2017,” Mae said.