Zamboanga City-A total of Sixty (60) newly hired field workers composed of Area Supervisors and Enumerators have successfully completed the 3-day training on Special Validation for Social Pension and MCCT Beneficiaries

Said training was conducted on April 28-30, 2014 at JKC, Liloy, Zamboanga Del Norte. It gathered all fieldworkers of Region IX covering Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga City and Isabela City. These workers shall validate the 6,799 identified Social Pension grantees and 2,616 Modified Conditional Cash Transfer for Families in Need of Special Protection (MCCT-FNSP) beneficiaries that are not in the NHTS database.

It aims to prepare the workers on field who will be assessing the poverty status of the indigent senior citizens and families covered by said programs. It also seeks to capacitate the workers in conducting household assessments since the new Family Assessment Forms (FAFs) shall be its main tool in the validation.

Series of topics were presented to the participants which helped them to understand the conduct of special validation processes. The Program Rationale and Implementation arrangements were given by DSWD’s Focal Person on Social Pension Mrs. Josefina Reyes and Mrs.Germiah Karim Bongabong for MCCT. Mr. Al Raschid Nandu, Regional Field Coordinator of Listahanan-Field Office IX also oriented the participants on their roles as Listahanan field workers and discussed briefly on how to handle Enumeration problems.

The technical part of the training started on the orientation of the Barangay Community Characteristic (BCC) Form to the Area Supervisor facilitated by Sharon Faith Marzan, Listahanan’s Regional Associate Statistician. The supervisors were given copies of the said form to understand the important variables they have to know and accomplish during the conduct of the assessment. The Area Supervisors will be deployed seven (7) days in advance of the Enumerators to complete the BCC forms.

A comprehensive yet detailed walk through on Family Asssessment Forms (FAFs) was also delivered to the fieldworkers on the 2nd day of the training. It was facilitated by Mr. Hasan B. Alfad, Focal Person for Listahanan. The Philippine Standard Occupational Classification (PSOC) code was also introduced to them which also play an importance in filling up of the FAFs.

Meanwhile, a mock interview was done in the afternoon of the 2nd day where fieldworkers conducted actual household assessment at Brgy. Baybay in Liloy. The drill aims to determine the gained knowledge they have acquired from the sessions presented to them. It will also test the fieldworkers’ ability to conduct interviews. The activity was supervised and guided by the Listahanan staff with the help of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program Parent leaders in the Area. Processing of the activity followed after the fieldwork facilitated by Mr. Euberto Gregorio, National Project Coordinator of Listahanan with Mr. Al Raschid Nandu and Mr. Hasan B. Alfad respectively. The results of their fieldwork were checked and commented during the evaluation.

The training capped with deployment planning and brief presentation on their reportorial requirements such as Progress reports, Family Asssessment Logs and clearances.

Listahanan staff challenged all fieldworkers to commit and be true to their work as they will become the hopes of these Senior citizens and their families for the continuance of their monthly grants.

The special validation will run for fifteen days including weekends to meet its targets provided in their master lists. ##