Praxedes M.

Etang

“I am a Center-based Social Worker”

DSWD Caraga Home for Girls located at Barangay Bonbon, Butuan City was recognized
as Level 3 for Accreditation of Home for Girls and the number 2 best center in the Philippines.
This accreditation simply means that the center complied or is a compliant with the mandatory
standards. This institution is a 24 hour residential facility that provides protection, care,
treatment and rehabilitation to the sexually abused child, abandoned, exploited child and
children in conflict with the law below eighteen years old and those people above eighteen
years old who are mentally challenged. It is a project of DSWD Field Office region 13 jointly
ventured by the Butuan City Government and the rotary club of butuan north. The city
government donated more than six thousand square meters lot while RTBT gave some financial
support for the construction of building and outdoors facilities. It has accommodated and
provided appropriate services to the sexually abused, exploited, abandoned and maltreated
children in the region based on their needs.

The said center provides different services and interventions that would aid to the
clienteles need such as; social services in which this intervention seeks to restore and enhance
the social functioning of the client or the patient from admission to discharge and to prepare
her for family reunification and integration to her community. Home life services for those
activities that would promote a healthy family life wherein this includes the basic needs of a
client such as her clothing, food and shelter. Through these services, it would help our clients to
develop a good values and the appropriate social skills that would able her to socialize well with
others and to change her negative behaviour into an acceptable one. Educational and livelihood
services as well has a good impact or a good effect in our clients lives it is because while they
are in the center, the service will serve as their preparation for independent living when they
will be discharged from the center. They are given different kinds of activities such as how to
make a rug and other thing that they could sell in the market; they are also trained on how to
make up, bake and manicure and pedicure as well; By this, as when they will leave the center,
they have brought new learning and knowledge that they could use as their way of generating
an income. It would be a big help for them to have an income even at their young age. Through
the learning they acquired from the center, they could also impart their knowledge to their
family and their significant others. It develops their way of viewing their lives and also improves
their personal lives and could able to help the society run smoothly. In order also for the
patients or the victims to not get bored inside the center, children are given something that
would feel them relaxed and have fun with, which also promotes their physical, spiritual and
social development. This is a good way of making and helping the children ease their traumas
and build their self confidence to face other people whom they did not knew. Spiritual
enrichment activities, through this activity it would enhance their moral and spiritual life which
will enable them to recover and moved on to their past life; the life which brought them into
darkness. Despite on the struggles and miserable situations they had faced, Even if it’s very
painful in their part, through this service provided, somehow it would lessen the difficulties and
unpleasant experiences in their hearts. This activity is very helpful in their parts because it
would enlighten their minds that there is still a man who loves and cared them very much
despite of what they have gone through and would help them along their way to make that
someone who commits and treats them roughly be in prison and paid what he or they has
done. The center also designed a Community participation activity which would allow to
develop the patient’s sense of belongingness in her community and to develop that they have
also a social responsibility. Through this activity, children who are sexually abused, abandoned
and online sexual exploited victims would feel that they also have a significant role in their
community; they are still important and have a chance to make their life prosperous and
successful despite of their thorny experiences. Even if a child committed a crime, just like
children in conflict with the law, According to Articles 37 and 40 of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child (1989), they still have the right to treatment that promotes their sense of
dignity and worth takes into account their age and aims at their reintegration into society. They
could be a productive member in the society despite of the traumatic experience they have and
the offense they have done. Children who come in conflict with the law need to be informed
about their rights. Preventive measures can improve children’s understanding of their
responsibilities under the law and help them avoid conflict.

It is very alarming and a sad reality in our society that the Philippines have become
known as a top global source of materials on child sexual abuse. More than 20,000 child
pornographic images are uploaded to the internet every week. In 2016, a random search made
by a research team found photos of individuals appearing to be aged between 11 and 17 years
in various nude poses and sexual acts. They were recognized as Filipinos because of their build,
clothing and facial structure. In the same year, a paper on cyber trafficking of Filipino girls found
evidence of commercial sexual exploitation of Filipino children. Because we are now in the
information age, accessibility to information and communication technology has become
widespread worldwide. At the same time, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse are increasingly
taking place through the use of ICTs. While the internet presents opportunities for knowledge
and development in children, online risks such as sexual exploitation and abuse of children
online also occur. Studies identified that children especially females are prone to cybersex
when they go online. Exposure to strangers would make them at risk and this could affect to a
child; it could decrease their self esteem and afraid to face people. Children who are abused
may also suffer from post traumatic stress and blame themselves for their abuse. Some sexually
abused children also have sexual behaviour problem. Other fairly common effects are
depression and self-blaming. Adolescents may engage in self-harm and substance use and this
is why some child would commit to end their lives it is because they couldn’t able to handle
their emotions. Institution such as DSWD Home for Girls has really a big significant role in terms
of the right of a person especially on a child. Children are vulnerable at any harm and still need
guidance and the institution has a great help for them. Social workers are there to help and
fight for the rights they deserve, assessed and counsel them in order for the child to maintain a
good cognition and to not let them drown on situations such as this.

In other cases as well like child abandonment in which this also refers on a child which
was left behind by his or her parents whose intention is not to return but to willingly give up his
or her parental responsibility. Usually the primary causes of this have been found to be poverty
or financial hardship, poor knowledge regarding family planning, the child having some form of
disability, pregnancy as a result of rape, abuse or force by partner, and a lack of services and
resources to support parents who have children with disabilities. Because of these, it would
make the child feel they are not important and does not have a value. Through this, it would
develop a deep sense of shame on them and mostly children tend to do offensive behaviour
such us always finding a trouble with others, get involved in gangs or other peer groups that
could lead them to be unsafe and near in troubles. These children who are abandoned by their
parents still need an assistance and full support in order for a child to grow productively and
enhance their full potential. In real life situation, we have a neighbour who has two sons and
one daughter who was abandoned by their mother and their father then find another partner
in life. His two sons were influenced by their peers and get involved in stealing in the nearby
school, households and in sari-sari store. Their sister also didn’t finish her study due to lack of
support and full attention of his father. The boys were reported in the barangay many times
and still continue their doings. They get into drinking alcohol and taking smoke at a very young
age. As I interpret this kind of situation, abandoning a child would create their life to trouble
and destroy the privileges they deserved such as, learning in school instead of stealing and
involved in gangs. Children like them supposed to be in school, making friends with their
classmates and does only mind their own business.
 Parents supposed to be the one who will provide their child’s need, the one who are
obliged to guide their child and must provide for the material and spiritual welfare of their
children. It is their responsibility to provide necessary clothing, food, shelter, education and
medical care and other important thing for the good of their children. They are supposed to be
the one who serve their child’s emotional and physical needs and protect the child from abuse.
They should be the person who encourages and support their children as this would greatly
boast their self esteem but it is very opposite in the situation of our neighbour’s life.

These are just some of the cases that were catered by the center and as a victim of
these incident; child develops a sense of feeling worthless in her community and any other
negative change to her self; in her physical, emotional, psychological and even to her social
environment. It affects the way she interacts to the people and even on her family itself. And as
a social worker, we play an important role for them in helping those physically and sexually
abused children. In order for us to play this vital role, we really need to have an adequate
knowledge on the nature of the problem for us to come up with the appropriate interventions.
We must think about and provide information about these traumas by appreciating their legal
definitions and by understanding the prevalence and incidence of child physical and sexual
abuse. Moreover, we social workers must be able to recognize those signs and symptoms of
these types of abuse and make reports to child protective services as they are mandated to do
by statute.

As when dealing or meeting with our clients; it is really important for us to have a
worker-client relationship because this is a crucial factor for us to connect with our client and
for her to build a trust and self-confident to share her experience. Building trust from our client
is not easy and we social workers must have this empathy that we are also trying to feel what
they are feeling, putting ourselves in the situations they are going through for us to really feel
and relate their side. We must not force them to talk their life story and we must also respect
their part as a victim. We respect them as being a victim and they still need space when to
share. Despite of their struggle, we should respect them as having a worth, treating their ideas
and feelings with consideration, telling them that we are there to help for them to become
more able and powerful because we social workers believed in the inherent worth and dignity
of all persons. Our duty is to uphold our client’s human rights and to serve them without
discrimination and also we should observe confidentiality in all our dealings with them.