HELP FOR SACADAS. Department of Social Welfare and Development 6 (Western Visayas) disaster response and management office division chief, Luna Moscoso, checks the assistance for sugar migrants of Antique on Monday (May 25, 2020). The department provided sleeping kits, towels, food packs, and dignity kits to 500 sacadas. (Photo courtesy of DSWD-6)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 6 (Western Visayas) on Monday delivered sleeping kits, food packs, and other items for the use of 1,472 Antiqueño sugar migrants (sacadas) who have returned to the province.
The DSWD-6 has provided 500 sleeping kits, 500 towels, 500 family food packs, and 27 dignity kits to sacadas currently under the mandatory 14-day quarantine in the isolation facilities of their respective municipalities, DSWD-6 disaster response and management office division chief, Luna Moscoso, said in an interview on Tuesday.
“The 500 sleeping kits were each composed of two blankets, a plastic mat, a mosquito net, and a malong or a wrap-around tubular garment,” Moscoso said.
She said the sleeping kits, worth PHP844.50 each, were delivered to isolation facilities in the municipalities of Barbaza and Culasi, which received 100 kits each, and Laua-an and Tibiao, 150 kits each.
Culasi and Laua-an received 150 pieces of towels each and Tibiao, 200 pieces.
“We also gave to the municipality of Laua-an 500 family food packs,” Moscoso said.
Each family food pack, she said, costs PHP530 and consisted of rice, coffee, and canned goods.
“There were also 27 dignity kits for female sacadas that were given in Laua-an,” Moscoso said.
Each dignity kit contained toothpaste, bath soap, and nail cutter, among others.
The provision of the assistance was in response to the requests of the mayors of the municipalities during their May 22 meeting with Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao and the Antique Inter-Agency Task Force for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
The provincial government will also extend financial assistance but the exact amount has yet to be allocated.
The sacadas were stranded in Negros Occidental following the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine in Antique from March 16 to April 30.
They were allowed to come home starting May 18 when the province was placed under general community quarantine. (PNA)
