Women, children's protection unit set-up by UNICEF, BARMM now open

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Local executives in Lanao del Sur are grateful to the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Bangsamoro health ministry for having established a Women and Children Protection Unit in Wao town in the province.

The Women and Children's Protection Unit, or WCPU, in the compound of the Wao District Hospital in the center of  Wao, one of the 39 towns in Lanao del Sur, was together inaugurated by local officials, representatives from the UNICEF and the Ministry of Health-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao last Tuesday, July 7.

Radio reports on Saturday in Central Mindanao stated that the UNICEF, which has ongoing humanitarian activities in BARMM, bankrolled the setting up of the WCPU that the MoH-BARMM and the office of Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua helped establish.

The WCPU, the first of its kind in the Bangsamoro region, shall provide essential medical and psychosocial interventions for children and women who are victims of violence, had experienced maltreatment and abuses and armed conflicts. It shall also extend free legal services to clients from the local communities.

“We are grateful to the United Nations Children’s Fund and to the Bangsamoro regional health ministry for jointly establishing this facility. It augurs well with our provincial government’s children and women’s welfare programs in our province,” Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. told reporters on Saturday.

Adiong, chairperson of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Peace and Order Council, said he and his constituent-mayors shall support the operation of the WCPU.

Physicians from the Integrated Provincial Health Office-Lanao del Sur and from the Wao District Hospital and local executives were also present in the symbolic launching of the WCPU last Tuesday. The office of the physician Allen Minalang, chief of the IPHO-Lanao del Sur, also has extensive women and children's physical and mental care programs.

BARMM's health minister, the physician-ophthalmologist Kadil Sinolinding Jr., also a member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament, said the setting of the WCPU inside the compound of the Wao District Hospital is a big boost to multi-sector efforts in addressing the pains and trauma of women and children caused by all forms of violence and abuses and their having experienced the bad effects of armed conflicts.

“The WCPU shall function as a safe haven for children and women needing interventions for them to recover from the pain and trauma caused by difficult situations they were once in,” Sinolinding said.

He said he and his subordinates in the MoH-BARMM are thankful to UNICEF, whose representative to the Philippines is Kyungsun Kim, for having embarked on the project, along with the Bangsamoro government.

“This facility will make it easy for children to come forward and begin the process of healing, without fear, or judgment. UNICEF will continue to support efforts to bring child-sensitive protection services closer to every child, especially those in underserved and hard-to-reach communities,” Kim said.