THE Department of Social Services and Development (DSSD) in Bacolod City has started implementing the Street Dwellers Enhancement Project for mendicants and street children.
Social Worker Officer IV Sally Abelarde Thursday, April 20, said Mayor Evelio Leonardia approved an P8.694 million budget for the implementation of the project.
The project proponents are 100 mendicants, including adult and child beggars in various areas.
Abelarde said the project involves the advocacy and social mobilization and family welfare card. Every beneficiary of the program will be given a card or household subsistence worth P1,800 per month for food, medicines, and school allowance.
It also includes mendicant’s summit, capacity building/training, livelihood assistance, and general services, Abelarde said.
Undersecretary for Public and Safety Jesus Hinlo Jr. of the Department of the Interior and Local Government had earlier asked the city officials to initiate a program for street children.
Hinlo said giving them shelter is important, adding that street children have the potential to become future criminals if no one cared for them.
Abelarde said they are now gathering information to determine the number of street children especially in the downtown area and Lacson Street.
“The very target of the program is to improve the well-being of the targeted mendicants and street children with the three goals to assist the beneficiaries toward development, institutionalize a common framework in reaching growth and sustainability, and reinforce protection of targeted sectors and limit domestic abuses or exploitation,” she said.
The anti-mendicancy task group was tasked to conduct a survey to update DSSD’s record.
Abelarde said this is a three-year program and intended for the vagrant mendicants in Bacolod only. Those who are not residents will be sent back to their respective cities and municipalities in the province.
The beneficiaries will sign an agreement with the City Government so that they will stop begging on streets, and if the parents are uncooperative, authorities can file charges against them for violation of Republic Act 9262 or the Anti-Violence against Women and their Children Act of 2004.
The DSSD had already informed Hinlo of the implementation of the program, Abelarde said.