The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) hosts a Family Camp for 900 street family-beneficiaries in NCR of the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT) project to provide opportunity for the street families to experience various activities geared towards character building and personality development.
The family camp conducted in three batches will be held at the Island Cove, Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite this November.
DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman said that the family camp is a strategy wherein social services will be provided for the street families all throughout the camping period. It will also serve as a venue to strengthen their parental capability.
“The event will let them temporarily forget their everyday struggle on the streets and hopefully experience a real family life,” Secretary Soliman said.
The 900 street family-beneficiaries (or 4,500 individuals) of the project were grouped into three batches. The first batch of families had their camping last November 7-9 while the second and third batch will be on November 14-16 and November 27-29, respectively.
The children-beneficiaries will be participating in various activities such as discussion on children’s rights, story-telling sessions, supervised neighborhood play, film showing, seminar on harmful effects of illegal drugs, zoo tour, and other sports activities such as volleyball swimming and basketball. Through these activities they will develop the values of sportsmanship and teamwork as well as build character and gain positive self-esteem.
On the other hand, the parents will be engaging in Family Development Sessions, skills trainings, spiritual enhancement, gender sensitivity and empowerment training.
Street families who excelled during the three day camping will be recognized and awarded.
The MCCT for Street Families covers poor families who were not included in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program because of their mobile lifestyle and indefinite residence.
The MCCT provides a complete package of assistance to the street families which are not limited to education and health grants, but also include safe and responsive housing assistance with access to social services and economic opportunities for the improvement of their living conditions.
The street families under the MCCT project will also receive monthly cash grants for health and education, provided that they comply with the modified conditionalities.
The conditions that they should comply with are: parents should ensure that their children do not stay or work on the streets; parents/guardians should participate/attend the Family Life Education and Counseling, and Family Development Sessions conducted in their locale; children should be attending any mode of learning, either regular school, Alternative Learning System (ALS), School on Wheels or Supervised Neighborhood Play; parents/guardians should bring their children to health centers for immunizations, weight and height monitoring and preventive check-ups; and household beneficiaries must stay in alternative residences after identification, relocation and/or provision of shelter assistance for them. ###
