CEBU, Philippines - More than two million kilos of rice have been distributed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development to different day-care centers in Central Visayas through the Food for the School Program.
This has benefited more than 30, 000 pre-schoolers attending day-care centers and public schools all throughout the region.
The Food for the School Program is a joint initiative of DSWD and the Department of Education.
“It is one of the immediate interventions of the government to address hunger among families through their children enrolled in DepEd’s supervised preschools, public elementary schools and DSWD day-care centers,” according to DSWD.
The program is a form of food subsidy for young learners who belong to poor families. Daily rations of one kilo of rice are given to a child for a specific period of time.
The family is assured of rice everyday as long as the child also goes to school everyday. Each child has already received 107 kilos for this year’s distribution.
The project has two objectives; to mitigate hunger among poor families and to improve attendance of children in the learning facilities.
Families of children beneficiaries were selected based on the 2006 Family Income and Expenditures Survey conducted by the National Statistics Office and the Small Area Estimates methodology conducted by the National Coordination Board.
Meanwhile, DSWD has demanded for the speedy drafting of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 9523 or the act requiring the certification of DSWD to declare a child legally available for adoption as pre-requisite for adoption proceedings.
RA 9523 was recently signed by the president into law last March 12. It is considered a milestone in addressing the pressing issue to immediately facilitate the declaration of abandonment without undergoing the judicial process.
DSWD-7 Information Officer Jaybee Carillo said that under the law, DSWD is given the responsibility to implement the provisions of the act with the sole authority to issue the certification declaring a child legally available for adoption.
DSWD pushes for the soonest implementation of the law to soon give parentless children the chance to be adopted and to belong to a family that shall take care of them.
In 2008, DSWD-7 had processed 184 cases for adoption, 127 of which were locally adopted, 52 were inter-regional and 5 were adopted outside the country. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/BRP (THE FREEMAN)