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The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-7’s partner stakeholder, National Auxiliary Chaplaincy Philippines (NACPHIL) Inc. through its assistant regional director, Mr. Kevin Rodriguez who is also one of the ERPAT regional organization officers discussed about the Empowerment Reaffirmation of Paternal Abilities and Trainings (ERPAT) and its objectives.

ERPAT regional officer Mr. Kevin Rodriguez (left) explains the objectives of the organization during the Kapihan sa PIA Cebu.

“The ERPAT program aims to educate fathers about their roles in the family. Once fathers know their roles at home, they will learn to appreciate God’s purpose in creating man,” Mr. Rodriguez explained the objective of ERPAT.

He also stressed that ERPAT gives importance and emphasis in the development and enrichment of Knowledge, attitude and skills of a father in preparing his parental roles and obligations.

Mr. Rodriguez added that ERPAT also serves as one of the interventions of the parent effectiveness services because it uses the significant roles of fathers in all aspects of child rearing.

The ERPAT association in region 7 has already started conducting trainings in the barangays to strengthen the organization of male parents.

According to Rodriguez, there are many women organizations but he rarely sees organization formed on husbands or fathers.

In addition, Rodriguez said they will be coordinating with male-oriented groups, like habal-habal (motorcycle-for-hire) drivers to organize ERPAT organizations in the different municipalities in the region.

As one of the regional officers, Rodriguez pushes for the formation and strengthening of the ERPAT organizations and later form these organizations into a federation.

“With God’s grace, we would be able to organize municipal ERPAT organizations in Central Visayas. Once we have established ERPAT in all municipalities, we can then form a federation of all the fathers’ groups,” Rodriguez said.

“We have enhanced the program manual to strengthen the husbands’ participation in the practice of gender equality and improve their parenting performance. The enhanced manual consists of nine modules including Understanding Myself as a Person, Accepting Your Role as a Father, Becoming Your Wife’s Best Friend, Fathers as Child Caregivers, and Promoting Family Spirituality, among others”, shared DSWD-7 Social Welfare and Development officer III and Family focal person. ###

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