Four barangays in two municipalities of Lanao del Sur were taken of their profile for status of the natural resources and the needs of the communities, a move that would hasten the development planning process of a locality.
The Maranao People Development Center (Maradeca) Inc. conducted the community profiling with support from Caritas-Australia.
The profiling was taken at the four barangays of Salipongan, Diolangan, Pagalongan and Bacayawan, all in the municipalities of Bubong and Sultan Domalondong.
Maradeca said that the community profiling “aims to involve building up a picture of the nature, needs and resources of a community with the active participation of the community”.
“It is a useful first stage in any community planning process to establish a context which is widely agreed and identify the most disadvantaged sector in the communities,” the group said.
The activity was facilitated by Ms. Faridah U Salic, program coordinator of Maradeca Inc, which was participated by 135 stakeholders. Maradeca said Ms. Salic employed participatory workshops and discussions “in order to gather cohesive information in the community”.
Ms. Salic said that the community profiling was successful “because of the cooperation of the community people and the support from the barangay local government unit”.
During the workshops, participants identified the conditions and socio-economic trends in their community, the daily works and tasks of both men and women as they also drew the community map and placed timeline of the activities.
“I am very thankful that Maradeca, Inc. conducted and initiated this kind of activity. It is really relevant to us, not just for me but the whole barangay to gain knowledge and learnings,” said Hon. Sobair H. Macabinta, the barangay chairman of Salipongan, Bubong.
“Besides, this area is not my own and all of us must be concerned in order to develop. It is a wonderful experience to be part of this activity,” he added
Maradeca said that through the profiling, “gender issues were also identified wherein men and women are aware of their genders roles and responsibilities”.
One of the men participants from Barangay Pagalongan, Sultan Domalondong said that “he realized that women have important roles in the development of the community, though most women are in-house but they are they are overloaded on household works thus, cooperation with our house-partners is very essential”.
Uztadj Zainoden, participant from Barangay Salipongan, Bubong expressed her gratitude after the training. He said that the resource mapping “will be a window to develop their
community only if constituents knows to utilised the resources. Our place (Lanao del Sur)
has a vast and cultivated land but we don’t know how develop the resources we have aside
from rice and corn farming”.