BACOLOD City – The families of two persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) of the Metro Bacolod District Jail – Male Dormitory received food carts under the livelihood project called “Kariton ng Paghilom” of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) Region 6.
Chief Supt. Simeon Dolojo Jr., BJMP-6 director, and Supt. Norberto Miciano Jr., district jail warden, led the turnover to beneficiaries Analyn Salon, 32, and Genoveva Corter, 64, in a ceremony held at the jail facility in Barangay Handumanan on Wednesday, December 11.
The project’s name, “Paghilom,” translates to “healing” in Hiligaynon.
“I’m grateful because this would be a big help for me and my children,” Salon said.
A resident of Barangay 16 in this city, she became the sole breadwinner of the family after her husband had been jailed for more than a year now.
Taking on jobs as a nail technician and laundry worker, she takes care of their three children.
The youngest, a four-year-old boy, has a congenital heart failure and needs daily medication and urgent surgery.
“My son needs to undergo a heart operation, but we don’t have the financial resources yet. The food cart will help me earn more to send my two children to school and buy maintenance medicines for my youngest,” Salon said.
Corter, a fisherfolk from Barangay 10, has four children with her spouse, who is in jail, but has to care for all 19 family members.
Her eldest child, who has been diagnosed with end-stage renal disease, undergoes dialysis twice a week, while her two other children both have mental disability.
According to the BJMP-6, the “Kariton ng Paghilom,” made possible through the generosity of various sponsors, is “more than just a cart; it is a symbol of hope and healing within the community.”
“It represents a commitment of the BJMP to reach out always to the last, the least, and the lost,” it added. (PNA)
