As part of its support for the One Billion Rising movement, the biggest global mass action to end violence against women in human history, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), as the lead agency in social protection, is staying true to its commitment to protecting and empowering women by continuously implementing rehabilitative and protective programs and services for abused women or those in difficult situations.

The DSWD offers two types of women’s welfare programs: community-based and center-based. Community-based programs and services are preventive, rehabilitative, developmental programs and initiatives that mobilize the family and community to respond to issues or concerns of women who are in need or at risk.

Community-based programs and services are divided into three categories, including preventive, treatment and recovery, and aftercare. Preventive programs refer to those that promote protective and developmental services for women. The National Family Violence Prevention Program (NVFPP), a strategy aiming to prepare family members to protect themselves against violence by training them on management and resolution of conflicts within the household, falls under preventive programs.

The treatment and recovery category, on the other hand, includes programs that provide diagnostic evaluation and planning services for emotionally disturbed or abused women. The Department’s Quick Response Team (QRT) through the Crisis Intervention Unit (CIU), which provides temporary shelter, counseling, and psychotherapy; and the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP), which offers skills and capital assistance to women, both fall under this category.

Aftercare refers to interventions, approaches and strategies with the end goal of ensuring effective reintegration and prevention of relapse of women discharged from residential and correctional facilities.

Center-based programs, on the other hand, are programs and services that give alternative forms of family care by providing 24-hour residential care facilities on a temporary basis for individuals whose needs cannot be met by their families or relatives for a specified period of time.

Center-based programs include the treatment and rehabilitation program, which facilitates restoration, healing, and recovery of women from trauma; group life and home care program, which offers opportunities for women to regain their self-worth; productivity skills training program, which includes the provision of basic training services to women based on their needs; and health and nutrition program.

Center-based programs also include a number of services and intervention, such as social services, home life services, health services, and skills training and vocational counseling. These also include legal service, recreational and other cultural activities, faith and spiritual enrichment, and community participation.

The DSWD maintains and manages 15 institutions or homes for women nationwide where they are provided with the said center-based programs and services.

According to DSWD Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo, everyone should actively fight all forms of women abuse.

“The DSWD upholds the rights and promotes the welfare of women. We need to actively fight all forms  of violence and raise awareness among Filipinos that women abuse is never right. We need to work hand-in-hand as our collective efforts will one day help build a world of freedom, equality, and peace –a world where women are accorded with rights equal to men,” she said.

Women who need help may contact the following government agencies:

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)
Batasan  Pambansa Complex, Quezon City
Tel. No.: (02)931-8101 to 07

DSWD –NCR Ugnayan Pag-asa Crisis Intervention Center
Legarda, Manila
Tel. No.: (02) 734-8639/ 734-8654/ 734-8626 to 27

Philippine National Police (PNP)
Camp Crame, Quezon City
Tel. No.: 723-0401 to 20

PNP-Women and Children Protection Center (WCPC)
Camp Crame, Quezon City
Tel. No.: 410-3213

NBI-Violence Against Women and Children Desk (VAWCD)
Taft Avenue, Manila
Tel. No.: 523-8231 to 38 / 525-6028

One Billion Rising

On February 13, the Department will hold a One Billion Rising pre-activity at its Central Office in Batasan, Quezon City with the movement’s Global Director, Ms. Monique Wilson. DSWD officials and employees will be dancing the One Billion Rising dance as a sign of their support.

The DSWD will also participate in the culminating activity of the movement at Liwasang Bonifacio on February 14. About 200 employees from the Department will stand and dance in solidarity with other women and with men as part of its call to end the exploitation of women and all forms of women abuse.

The One Billion Rising movement was first launched on Valentine’s Day of 2012. It began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women in the world – adding up to more than one billion women and girls – will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. Every year, the movement enjoins people across the world to express their outrage and to strike, dance, and rise in defiance of the injustices that women are subjected to. #