The Department of Social Welfare and Development through its Field Office VII continues to provide services to the remaining five (5) IP children in its facility.

Since the admission of the IP children at the facility, the DSWD-7 has ensured that social welfare and development services are provided to them.

At the center, the children are provided with homelife, health care, personal hygiene, spiritual enhancement services, and stress management exercises.

The children are provided by DSWD-7 with food, clothing, and shelter; hygiene supplies/toiletries, and hair trimming; the social worker and houseparent guided them in their recreation time that includes movie viewing, singing, and group games; the social worker and houseparent also join and interact with the children during their time to listen to religious/inspirational songs and in the activities that help manage stress like relaxation techniques and Zumba exercises.

The DSWD social worker, whose mandate is to enhance the overall well-being of these children, conducts psycho-social processing sessions with the children to help them express their thoughts and feelings through drawing, journal writing, talking, and playing.

The children are also exposed to household chores and help in the food preparation as part of their home life activities while at the center.

The center is a substitute home for children where the social workers and the houseparents of DSWD serve as their alternate parents. It is not a place of confinement, detention or prison.

In one of their writing activities, the children expressed in dialect that their stay at the center is okay and the staff members are good and treat them well.

As the welfare arm of the government, DSWD ensures that children are given what is due them and advocates for their best interest. It assured the public and the family of five IP children in its custody of the assistance within the Department’s mandate to ensure that children’s rights are upheld at all times.

The DSWD, which is mandated to care, protect, and provide welfare services to minors, has the primordial responsibility on the best interest of children.  It ensures that they are best taken care of by the center staff and later on by their own families and communities when they are already reintegrated with them. ###

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