The story was originally published on page 24 of Task Force Bangon Marawi 2020 Magazine.

The Community and Family Services International (CFSI) is one of the international organizations helping the Philippine government in promoting economic recovery of households affected by the Marawi crisis. Under its Marawi Recovery Project (MRP), CFSI aims to provide urban-based livelihood support packages such as carinderia sets, skills-based sets, and farming tools to 3,696 affected households.

The family of Asnawi Sumali and Johana Marauna is one of the households that benefited from the MRP and was able to recover economically through the project’s livelihood support.

They used to own a small sari-sari store that sold cheap snack foods when they were still in Sarimanok Tent City. After receiving a refrigerator and grocery items livelihood support from CFSI, they started earning as much as Php 500 a day and were able to acquire their own coconut grater and sewing machine to have more means to get income.

In this time of COVID-19 pandemic, CFSI also took other initiatives to support those whose livelihood was affected by the health crisis. CFSI partnered with the Office of Provincial Agriculture of Lanao del Sur to distribute high-value crops and varying vegetable seeds to 1,000 MRP project participants.

Project participants who are pedicab drivers also received PhP1,000 cash subsidy in partnership with the Marawi Traffic Management Group.

Moreover, CFSI started the community-based support to livelihood (CBSL) in December 2020 where 15 community projects will be implemented in the municipalities of Butig, Lumbayanague, and Masiu.

These community projects include farm-to-market road, footbridge, box culvert, two warehouses, pathway, concrete road, and post-production assets such as corn, mobile sheller, rice miller, coffee grinding machine, power tiller machine, and floater tiller machine.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, handwashing facilities, water systems, and toilet facilities will also be installed and rehabilitated.

CFSI will continue to serve and rebuild lives in Marawi City, the municipalities of Ditsaan-Ramain, Marantao, Piagapo, Butig, Lumbayanague, and Masiu, and other vulnerable persons (OVP) sites until December 2021. #