DULANGAN, MINDANAO

Dulangan is a rural community located in Digos City , Davao Del Sur Mindanao. Currently, it has a population of 1,659 and its land area is 4,313 hectares. Dulangan residents are either farmers or seasonal agricultural workers with an average family income of Php2,100 a month or about USD 39.

Dulangan has a special history as it has already learnt the value of community support and cooperation. The community understands that cooperation is the key to achieving a bright future for themselves and their children . Some infrastructure facilities include a barangay hall, multipurpose hall, health centre, and an elementary school have already been built.

It is now time to rebuild their own homes. The Dulangan community is in dire need of better housing with most families living in houses made of temporary materials.

The Barangay Dulangan Housing Village Project is a socialized housing project to provide decent houses to 70 families. It will adopt the save-and-build approach as a core strategy in order to achieve its objectives.

A series of orientation about the Habitat save and build program will be conducted among potential home owner partners. This will include:

:: Family selection, organization of savings groups and savings mobilization to raise 1/3 of the total house cost as savings equity of home partners;

:: Creation and strengthening of Home Owner Partners association on the key concepts, values, principles and processes of sustainable community development.

Each home partner will be required to render 400 hours of sweat equity to lower the house cost. With 60% of its members as potential home partners, the Dulangan Consumers Welfare and Development Multi-purpose Cooperative (DCWDMC) will handle and ensure 100% collection of monthly house repayments.

An additional requirement set by the community is that all qualified home partners must also apply to become members of the Cooperative.

To assist with the repayments of the housing materials, this committed local community has planned to develop an income generating activity in the form of a community goat rearing project. This will involve the 70 families who are rebuilding their houses. BCA has committed $8,000 over 3 years to fund to this program. Again, repayment would be made on this too so it is another case of a 'hand-up' instead of a 'hand-out'.

The local community has signed a Memoranda of Agreement with BCA on these programs.

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