Glenda and her two special children.

Boston Davao Oriental- The municipality of Boston has come a long way because it never surrendered to mounting challenges especially to  disasters like Typhoon Pablo.

“We lost everything we had including our home, our crops. I almost lost my child with disability too,” said 49 year-old Vicmela Paguyan.

Vicmela is a Pantawid parent leader with five children. Her husband Rolly is a farmer. They are now living in a comfortable and descent home constructed under the Modified Shelter Assistance Program (MSAP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“Our lives now have really changed. After that tragic experience, we have become united in the family. Now I have learned to really pour out my love and attention to my special child Jhon,” Vicmela said.

Jhon has mental disorder and almost drowned when the water soared and penetrated their house.

“It was when I almost lost him that I realized I have not been that good a mother to him. Now my family is enjoying a lot of opportunities from DSWD and we strive harder to be worthy of the blessings,” Vicmela said.

Empowered

Vicmela is also a grantee of Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) as individual fish vendor earning a P 600 profit a day.

The couple is also one of the 85o beneficiaries of the abaca production project under SLP which will be implemented this year.

“We are very blessed and happy for all the opportunities we are enjoying right now. There are times when we thank ‘Pablo’ for coming into our lives because we got all of these,” Vicmela beamed.

Project Development Officer Reynaldo Magadan said that the abaca production project will really help Pantawid beneficiaries sustain their improving condition.

Like Vicmela, a Pantawid mother Glenda Ambili is grateful to DSWD for always being there.

Glenda has three children; two of them are also with special needs (mental disorder).

“It was really a devastating experience yet it tested my mettle as a mother. It was really hard to escape death that time, but my children prompted me to fight and save them),” Glenda recalled.

“As a parent, gazing at my children settling in a nice home we can truly call our own gives me a lot of happiness. I can now focus on paying back all that I received through persistence, resilience and being the best mother to my children,” Vicmela said.

For the two mothers Vicmela and Glenda, the best value to hold on to is to grow and take to heart the lessons that typhoon Pablo brought to their lives. (DSWD)