BAGUIO CITY – As part of the DSWD’s aggressive campaign to strengthen public and private partnership for its Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the Conditional Cash Transfer, women from various sectors in the region joined a Rural Women’s Congress held recently here.

The activity, which gathered women's sector representatives from local government units, beneficiaries, and partner civil society organizations, aimed to increase women’s participation in community development initiatives and to solicit concrete approaches in empowering the rural women.

Among the topics discussed in the congress include the Conditional Cash Transfer, poverty situation in the national and local level, and poverty and gender studies. The result of the congress will be shared to all program stakeholders and partners.

Perhaps it is the chilly breeze or the raindrops trickling down the worn-out roof. Or maybe, it is the sad memory that makes the atmosphere in the village of Dangtalan cold and melancholic every time the rain falls.

Barangay Dangtalan is one of the remotest areas in the municipality of Pasil, a fifth-class municipality in the southwestern part of the province of Kalinga.

Most of its villages lying along mountainous terrains are preceded with paths left untouched by development.

During the dry season, dust would cover one’s feet while traveling these paths. When the rain comes, mud makes access to and from the barangay more dangerous. Two lives have already been claimed because of the rugged terrain.