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Sunday, February 08, 2004
DSWD raises concern over number of streetchildren
SOCIAL welfare officials have expressed alarm over the rising the number of street children in Central Mindanao, particularly in the urban areas.
Monera Lidasan, operations chief of the Department of Social Welfare and Development-Central Mindanao, said the number of street children in the region has been on upward trend based on reports from various local government units (LGUs) in the area.
Lidasan, however, failed to give the exact figures saying they are still collating the reports from the LGUs. The task of monitoring the street children has been devolved by the DSWD to the LGUs several years ago.
"But we could actually observe this situation by looking at the number of stray and delinquent children in the streets now. And it's quite alarming because the problem is now prevalent in the growing cities and towns in the area," she said Wednesday.
The social welfare official particularly cited Koronadal City and Kidapawan as among the areas which have noted the growing number of street children.
Lidasan said they are now in the process of evaluating the situation on the street children through the social welfare offices of the LGUs.
She said the results of their evaluation would be used to determine the appropriate measures that would help address the problem in coordination with the concerned LGUs.
"We intend to come up with initiatives that would specifically cater to such concern because it is really becoming a big problem now," she said.
She cited cases in some LGUs wherein some street children have become beggars or participants in various street crimes.
Initially, Jackiya Lao, coordinator of the DSWD's community based services unit, said they are planning to help strengthen the Lingap Program of the DSWD which is one the initiatives that was conceptualized and implemented to address the problem on the street children.
She said they would help LGUs properly set up their Lingap Centers that would be the main drop in centers of the street children.
Lao said these drop-in centers would be patterned after the Lingap Center being maintained by the DSWD-Central Mindanao regional office in Cotabato City which houses at least 29 street children.
(February 6, 2004 issue)
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