Partnership with CCWPD
Project Profile:
The Center for Community Work and People’s Development is an NGO operating out of Manila, Philippines. CCWPD is involved with a multitude of different grassroots health, education, and community development projects. One of the main priorities of CCWPD is to empower the poor so that they can be the stakeholders of their future and are able to address their own needs. They have helped to create numerous development projects that are based in and run independently by the community they benefit. A total number of 58 projects in three programs worth P49M were implemented from 2002 up to the present. Of these, four (4) are health projects worth 1.2 M; 12 are Education and Training Projects worth 5.86 M and 42 infrastructure projects worth 42.94M.
Partnership History:
CCWPD has been an Omprakash partner since February 2008.
Need for Volunteers:
CCWPD needs volunteers to help out in its office in Manila and to make site visits to its different projects. Contact willy@omprakash.org to learn more.
Need for Material Resources:
As you can see below, CCWPD is in need of funding to support many of their development projects around the Philippines.
Fostering partnerships to develop communities and reduce poverty.
Organizational Profile
CCWPD is a dedicated non-government organization specializing in community development, working for the holistic or total development of man. In particular, it addresses development needs of the informal sector.
Its five years of work has created a wide network of advocates and experts from the church, government and civic organizations that can be tapped for development work.
It has developed innovations in development ideas that puts the poor at the forefront of activities making them primary stakeholders of their future. Empowering the poor is essentially organizing them, investing in skills development to enable them to manage their projects, opening access to livelihood opportunities and developing opportunities where there are none. It has helped create community-based associations that are proudly independent and make their own plans and projects.
A total number of 58 projects in three programs worth P49M were implemented from 2002 up to the present. Of these, four (4) are health projects worth 1.2 M; 12 are Education and Training Projects worth 5.86 M and 42 infrastructure projects worth 42.94M.
A pilot project on Primary Health Care produced 40 community health workers (CHW) equipped with skills and minimum equipments for immediate response to illnesses and emergencies. These CHWs serve in the health committee of people’s organizations in the communities. Tanks and pumps were provided to seven small-scale water providers in areas where drinking water is lacking.
Medical missions were conducted in 10 urban poor areas benefiting 5,000 individuals were served with CCWPD’s mobile clinic equipped with an x-ray machine, dark room, a medical laboratory, dental chair and emergency equipment.
The advocacy campaign for Women and Children’s empowerment, a scholarship program and paralegal capacity building program for leaders of partner organizations resulted in the formation of the Akap sa Bata ng mga Guro – Kalinga Philippines, an NGO specializing in Early Child Care and Development. In four years, 35 child care centers are now running independently with continuing teachers’ capacity building from CCWPD.
Background:
CCWPD since 2002 has been instrumental in mobilizing resources for the development of more than 100 community-based self-help organizations (CBOs) in slums around Manila. 35 CBOs have developed to the level of putting up their operating Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) centers. A few have been provided enough capacity and mentoring that these have acquired their own buildings and equipment by getting assistance from local foundations such as Rotary Clubs.
Many have functioning financial systems to pay their teachers and assistants. However, due to the recent economic difficulties, these systems are constantly challenged. Two of these are particularly challenged, namely the Magdalena and Lakeview day care centers. These two have not yet acquired their own support networks and capacities to escape dire poverty.
The center in Magdalena is a rickety hole in the wall built on top of an open sewer and attached to a row of hovels, with no decent classroom fixtures or electricity. It services 30 children of underemployed parents every year. The surrounding community is called Tondo, Manila, a notoriously poor slum area that thrives on the wet markets nearby.
Lakeview is a relocation site for slumdwellers who were evicted from many squatter colonies around Manila. The area is a dumpsite right next to the Laguna Lake in the city of Taguig. Compared to Tondo, Lakeview is even poorer since the site is far from sources of livelihood. Houses get flooded in the wet season and during the dry months, the winds from the open lake stir up dust and flies. The day care center is a patchwork of cardboard standing on muddy earth and its roof of old corrugated tin gets blown away during gusty winds.
The needs of the two centers are different. Magdelena needs to pay its volunteer teacher and one assistant for at least 12 months in 2008 and buy teaching aids. The two staff together can survive on $10 a day or $200 a month, which totals $2,400 in a year. The teaching aids budget for the next academic year is $450.
The mothers’ club in Lakeview has been asking CCWPD to locate a source of funds to replace the ramshackle enclosure with a concrete brick building with a permanent floor, toilet and kitchen. The estimated barebones budget for materials is US$9,000. Labor for construction is counterpart from the community, while
future equipment and furniture will be mobilized from matching grants that will be sourced other foundations when the facility is finished.
The third area of need the CCWPD needs to address is its own nutrition project. Early this year, a Catholic parish in Switzeland provided funding to jumpstart Nutrimeals, a project that aimed to produce cheap and sustainable feeding materials for its network of child care centers. However, after the structure was set up, production was hindered because of lack of funds to allow CCWPD to acquire legal permits and a water piping system that would allow mass production of Nutrimeals. The many layers of government regulatory requirements proved to be very prohibitive beyond the size of the first grant. The amount required to cover these is US$2,200.