In 2015, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) continued to pursue excellent public service to respond to the many needs of the poor, disadvantaged, marginalized and vulnerable Filipinos.
Significant accomplishments were achieved, primarily in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program.
As an investment in human capital, the program saw to the graduation of the first batch of high school students enrolled in the program. More than 300,000 high school students graduated, with 13,469 of them graduating with honors.
Following are the highlights of the Department’s 2015 accomplishments:
PANTAWID PAMILYANG PILIPINO PROGRAM
Pantawid Pamilya is a human development program that invests in the health and education of poor families, primarily those with children aged 0-18. It provides cash grants to partner-beneficiaries who comply with the conditions of sending their children to school, bringing them to health centers for checkups, and attending the monthly Family Development Sessions (FDS).
As of November 2015, Pantawid Pamilya served 4,351,950 household beneficiaries. Of the total number, 4,113,916 households are covered by regular Pantawid Pamilya program while the remaining 238,034 are covered by the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT).
COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT
The Department also empowers communities through its Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services-National Community-Driven Development Program (Kalahi-CIDSS).
Through this, communities are mobilized to participate in local governance using strategies that reduce existing gaps in social inclusion, transparency, accountability, and people’s participation in priority-setting, designing, planning, implementing, operating, and maintaining community development projects and activities.
For 2015, Kalahi-CIDSS has funded/prioritized a total of 26,392 community sub-projects nationwide, of which 10,724 are already completed and benefiting approximately 2.4 million household beneficiaries.
SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD PROGRAM
The Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) continues to provide entrepreneurial and employment opportunities to the poor, mostly Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries.
The SLP is a two-track program: 1) the Micro-Enterprise Development Track supports micro-enterprises in becoming organizationally and economically viable; 2) the Employment Facilitation Track assists participants to access appropriate employment opportunities.
For 2015, the SLP served 264,102 Pantawid Pamilya family-beneficiaries.
SOCIAL PENSION FOR INDIGENT SENIOR CITIZENS
The program provides a monthly stipend amounting to P500 to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of indigent senior citizens.
Priority for inclusion in the program are seniors who are frail, sickly, or with disability; without pension from Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS), Armed Forces & Police Mutual Benefit Association, Inc. (AFPMBAI), and other insurance companies; and, without any permanent source of income or regular support from his/her relatives.
From 2011-2014, the Department prioritized senior citizens aged 77 years old and above. For this year, seniors 65 years old and above are covered by the program.
A total of 760,736 indigent senior citizens aged 65 years old and above were served for 2015.
SUPPLEMENTARY FEEDING PROGRAM
This is the provision of food to day care children as part of the DSWD’s contribution to the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Program of the government.
Hot meals are served during snack time in the morning session or in the afternoon session to children in Day Care Centers (DCCs) and in Supervised Neighborhood Play (SNP).
Children beneficiaries are weighed at the start of the feeding period and three months thereafter. After the completion of 120 feeding days, the improvement and sustenance in the nutritional status of the beneficiaries will be determined.
For 2015, a total of 1,310,498 day care children were served.
DISASTER RESPONSE
The year 2013 was challenging for DSWD’s disaster response programs due to Typhoon Yolanda. That year, a New Normal was set for the country.
DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said that this New Normal challenged how DSWD extensively adjusted all responses and different programs to aid the recovery of communities affected by disasters.
In 2015, the total cost of assistance provided to affected families affected by various disasters was ₱145,572,828.25. This includes relief assistance to the affected families from January to November 2015.
ASSISTANCE TO INDIVIDUALS OR FAMILIES IN CRISIS SITUATIONS (AICS)
The Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) is provided to individuals and families whose normal functioning has been hampered due to difficult situations brought about by poor health condition, natural and man-made calamities, and other emergencies. The assistance includes counseling, direct financial assistance, and/or the provision of guarantee/referral letters.
A total of 540,384 individuals and families in crisis situations were served in 2015 amounting to P1,850,214,233.91. They were provided with counseling, medical expenses, transportation assistance, food subsistence, educational assistance, and burial assistance, among others
ALTERNATIVE PARENTAL CARE
DSWD also implements the Alternative Parental Care program to reach out to children who are neglected, abused, or abandoned; and to provide them permanent, caring, and loving families to call their own.
The alternative parental care may be permanent placement through adoption or temporary placement through foster care.
“Foster care” refers to provision of planned substitute parental care to a child by a foster family, when his/her biological parents are unable to care for him/her temporarily or permanently.
The Department has the responsibility to declare a child legally available for adoption as a pre-requisite for local and inter-country adoption as stipulated in Republic Act No. 9523.
In 2015, the Department issued 647 Certifications Declaring a Child Legally Available for Adoption (CDCLAA), which is the first step in finding alternative homes for children.
Of the total, 408 CDCLAA were processed for regular and agency adoption, 27 for foster-adopt, and 212 for independently placed children or children who had been under the care of their adoptive families prior to the issuance of the certification.
Moreover, 271 children were placed-out for domestic adoption and 342 cleared for inter-country adoption.
Foster adopt is a term used when the foster parents signify their interest to adopt their foster child who is eligible for adoption and has not yet been matched with an approved adoptive family.
As for children under temporary placement or foster care, there were 1,642 licensed foster families and 1,402 children placed under foster care.
Meeting the challenges
As 2015 ends, the Department faces program and policy challenges in the coming year, to name a few: the institutionalization of Pantawid Pamilya in the face of change in leadership; continuing enhancement of warehousing capacity for a strengthened disaster operations to cope with the new normal; and the drafting of concrete convergence mechanism between DSWD, local government units and other organizations to respond to social issues like the proliferation of street children.
Amid these challenges, the Department continues to seek more ways to institute reforms to become more responsive to the needs of its target clientele. ###
