DSWD eyes zero street kids in Metro

BY THE end of the year, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) hopes to clear 10 areas in Metro Manila of street children.

In a forum held yesterday in Quezon City, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said that her department, in cooperation with local government units and other government agencies, would be launching a  program aimed at providing street children and their families,  including Badjaos, with permanent homes, education and livelihood opportunities to make sure that they would permanently stay off the streets.

The DSWD and LGUs will be responsible for providing financial and technical support to the program in coordination with the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

The program’s priority areas were identified as the stretch of Roxas Boulevard in Manila; Kalayaan Road, Barangay E. Rodriguez and Quezon Avenue in Quezon City; the Balintawak area in Caloocan City; Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City; Greenhills in San Juan; Kapasigan area in Pasig City; Madrigal Avenue in Muntinlupa City; and the road leading to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Parañaque City.

According to the Council for the Welfare of Children, there are about 4,000 street children in the National Capital Region. Soliman, however, said that the DSWD would focus first on the 10 areas with the highest number of street kids.

She added that the program would include putting up activity centers where the children could stay and play. In addition, the DSWD will create activities that will help encourage character building, value formation and life skills training.

Soliman also said that under the program, a 24-hour center would be established where parents could leave their young children when they go off to work.

For children who sell sampaguita garlands in the streets, the DSWD wants to offer their mothers a livelihood opportunity—organize them into a group which will grow the flowering shrubs themselves. The department will then refer them to potential customers such as events promoters and owners of funeral homes and hotels so that their children will not have to go out in the streets to sell garlands.

Soliman said that the program also aims to provide low-cost housing in the city to street children and their families so that  parents would not have to travel over long distances just to get to work.

As for the Badjaos, the DSWD secretary said they wanted to “liberate them from [a life of] indignity.”

Badjaos used to flock to Metro Manila to beg for alms only during the holiday season although now, they can be spotted in several areas in the city throughout the year.

Soliman said the Badjaos were looking for a “promised land” or a place where they would be accepted for who they are.

MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino and other Metro mayors, meanwhile, expressed their support for the DSWD by signing an agreement on the implementation of the program.

Tolentino, however, said that achieving the goal of zero street children would take longer to achieve than the timetable set by Soliman.

“It will take some time to provide homes to street children. Take note that we are not just talking about children but [their] families as well,” he told the Inquirer.

The MMDA chief said during the forum that the agency had rounded up and rescued at least 3,000 vagrants. All of them were turned over to DSWD centers and their accredited partners. With  Niña Calleja