Eastern Samar State University to store prepositioned relief goods for DSWD
The Eastern Visayas Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has established a partnership with Eastern Samar State University (ESSU) to use its campus facilities in the prepositioning of relief goods prior to and during typhoons.
On Tuesday, DSWD Regional Director Grace Subong and ESSU President Andres Pagatpat Jr. signed a memorandum of understanding to use some of the university’s rooms as a temporary warehouse for family food packs and other relief products. These facilities can be found at the ESSU main campus in Borongan City, as well as satellite campuses in Can-avid and Salcedo. The aim is to expedite the delivery of relief goods to the province’s flood-prone areas.
“This is part of DSWD’s strategy to preposition relief items in different parts of the region. Through prepositioning, DSWD stores relief items in strategic locations before a storm or disaster occurs. During a disaster, these stored relief items can be used as the main help to the municipalities who will request. Because of this, DSWD will respond faster to disasters,” Subong said in a statement on Wednesday.
The DSWD has been stockpiling relief supplies for Eastern Samar at its regional resource operations center in Palo, Leyte. Some stocks are held in local government warehouses for the time being.
DSWD Eastern Visayas currently has 14,994 family food packs on hand, including 11,694 at the DSWD regional resource operations division warehouse in Palo, Leyte; 800 in Allen, Northern Samar; 800 in Catarman, Northern Samar; 100 in Naval, Biliran; 200 in Maasin City, Southern Leyte; 700 at ESSU Can-avid, Eastern Samar; and 700 at ESSU Borongan City, Eastern Samar.
The family food kit, which includes rice, canned foods, and coffee, is compact enough to fit in a small package for one family.
Photo credit: DSWD. Family food packs are held in the regional resource operations center of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Palo, Leyte.
