Homes for street dwellers soon

Acting Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Virginia Orogo revealed yesterday the agency is eyeing to revive an old project to provide temporary shelters for street dwellers.

Orogo, in a televised interview, said the DSWD is looking to give a fresh spin on the previous administration’s project of providing activity centers for street children that was shelved before it was fully implemented.

The project of the previous administration was supposed to be carried out with the cooperation of local government and various non-government organizations.

“We are trying to come up with another concept, similar to the activity center, but we will call it ‘Silungan sa Barangay.’ It will be a temporary shelter for children we find abandoned by parents,” Orogo said.

She added street families will also be welcomed to the temporary shelter.

Orogo said the parents would be counseled and taught livelihood activities in the shelter.

“We will provide livelihood training programs so that they will not let their children go out to the street and earn for themselves,” Orogo said.

Orogo said while there are no actual provisions in the law against arresting or apprehending loiterers, the Philippine National Police should be careful in picking up young loiterers because they could easily be traumatized.

President Rodrigo Duterte announced last month that teenagers should not be spared from his crackdown on loiterers as he believed that it was also for their own good.