DON SALVADOR BENEDICTO, Negros Occidental -- "Now we can really feel that the government is helping us," one volunteer from the Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services project (Kalahi-Cidss) told members of the media here during its media tour organized by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to visit Kalahi-Cidss projects.

And at least that's what the officials and volunteers of the four barangays in Don Salvador Benedicto tried to express. Barangays Igmaya-an, Bunga, Bagong Silang, and Pandanon are four of the seven visited barangay-beneficiaries with a total of P6.3-million grant from World Bank, the national government, and the local counterpart of the municipality.

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Negros Occidental receives a total of P54-million grant for the Kalahi-Cidss projects covering 60 barangays with 25, 7, 15, and 13 barangays in the towns of Cauayan, Don Salvador Benedicto, Moises Padilla, and Hinoba-an, respectively.

Kalahi-Cidss, an initiative of the DSWD, is the government's top poverty alleviation program that employs the community-driven development approach aimed at empowering communities through their enhanced participation in community projects that reduce poverty.

Don Salvador Benedicto, a mountainous town that rely mostly on rice and corn produce, is investing on pre- and postharvest facilities from the project. In Igmaya-an, its farmers' association has acquired one tractor, one thresher, and corn sheller that they rent out to members and a special percentage goes to the association. To date, the Brgy. Igmaya-an Farmers Association (Bifas) has a collectible for tractor rental of P50,000 and cash amounting to P37,500 to be deposited in the bank since they started operating on November 2008.

Bunga has started the construction of their postharvest facilities in February and expects to finish by end of this month. The postharvest facilities include rice mill and flat bed dryer that, once operational, can accommodate 20 sacks per hour of drying. Seventy percent of the barangay's 5,965 residents are farmers with more than 1,000 hectares of land dedicated to rice paddies. The construction of the structure involves members of the community who are Kalahi-Cidss volunteers.

If the project is finished, the farmers' association in the barangay expects an increase in the rate per kilo of their palay, which is now being bought at P15 per kilo to as high as P17 per kilo because of a dryer palay quality.

Taking into consideration the environmental component of the community, the Bagong Silang Environmental Farmers Initiative for Development Association (Befida) with 36 members chose to invest on a vermicompost process center.

This nine-block center uses vermi to compost their wastes, which lessens the community's garbage and at the same time produces their organic fertilizer. The farmers used to buy vermifertilizer from commercial suppliers in Bacolod City but hope the facility can provide for their fertilizer needs once fully operational and further hope they can sell some vermicompost when the supply is more than enough to what the barangay needs.

The last tour stop was Pandanon. The rice mill, solar dryer, and the thresher are all operational since it was turned over to the Tuburran Upland Farmers Association (Tufas) last February.

Although initial steps for the project to materialize solicited some negative reactions from skeptical members of the barangay, the spirit of volunteerism by officials and Kalahi-Cidss volunteers proved the skeptics wrong.

Now, members and nonmembers of the farmers' association are enjoying the accessible rice mill and solar dryer for their produce.

This time, government's help is felt and is accessible in the grassroots level, most especially through the Kalahi-Cidss project of the DSWD. (PIA)