The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is set to include some 700 street families around Metro Manila in its initial implementation of the Expanded Conditional Cash Transfer (ECCT) Project which aims to provide them with a safe and healthy environment, free from the hazards of criminality, pollution, and road accidents.

There will be an initial pay-out of cash grants to some 152 program-beneficiaries to be witnessed by DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman and Manila Mayor Alfredo S. Lim at the San Andres Sports Complex in Malate today, August 16.

A household beneficiary with up to three children will receive cash grants of P1,400 per month.   The cash grants will be given on a monthly basis while undergoing case management and preparing them for mainstreaming to the regular Pantawid Pamilya program.

Under the ECCT project, qualified beneficiaries will not only receive cash grants but a complete package of assistance to include housing assistance with access to social services and economic opportunities for the improvement of their living conditions.  This intervention is also in support of the child protection policy and program.

For them to receive succeeding cash grants, the qualified beneficiaries should comply with the following conditions: parents to ensure their children do not stay or work in the streets; children should be attending any mode of learning – regular school, Alternative Learning System (ALS), School on Wheels, or Supervised Neighborhood Play (SNP); parents/guardians should participate/attend the Family Life Education and Counselling, and Development Sessions conducted in their locale; and parents/guardians should bring their children to health centers for immunizations, weight and height monitoring and preventive check-ups. Likewise, household beneficiaries must stay in permanent residences after identification, relocation and/or provision of shelter for them. Pregnant women should also have monthly check-up in health centers.

As of August 14, some 436 street families have been registered for the project. They were chosen based on a set of criteria such as families living in the streets, sidewalks, pavements, open spaces for at least three months, blood relatives with 0-14 years old children, and families willing to commit to meet the conditions. These families were validated by the National Household Targeting Office of DSWD-NCR from June to July 2012.

Secretary Soliman said that registration is still on-going until August 24 to complete the 700 target street families who have been identified during the rapid appraisal of street dwellers conducted by the Social Technology Bureau in 2010. ###