LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines (PNA) -- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) regional office here said Tuesday it recently completed and awarded houses to 40 indigent families in Labo, Camarines Norte.

The houses were built under the government’s Core Shelter Assistance Project (CSAP).

DSWD regional director for Bicol Remia Tapispisan said each unit of the core shelter houses costing P70,000 and designed to be typhoon-resistant stands in a 64 square-meter lot with a floor area of 20 square meters. It met the safety and stability standards set by the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau and also to be stable against strong earthquakes.

The project, including the electrification and water supply of each unit, was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a global development network of the United Nations (UN) focusing on helping 166 countries to find solution in problems like democratic governance, poverty reduction, crisis prevention and recovery, environment, and energy.

DSWD Undersecretary Cecilia Capadocia-Yangco, who was present during the turnover rites of the project along with UNDP country director Renaud Meyer Tapispisan, said CSAP is the provision of structurally strong and environment friendly shelter units to indigent families who have lost their houses to disasters.

Tapispisan said that the project that applies the Gawad-Kalinga strategy which utilizes work teams composed of the beneficiaries themselves to provide labor for the construction of the houses intended for them.

The DSWD regional chief said that the CSAP is part of the recovery initiatives for the region in the wake of recent disasters to provide for disaster victims shelter assistance, livelihood support, technical and vocational skills and capability building on disaster preparedness and mitigation.

It is being implemented in coordination with the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) and local government units (LGUs), she added.