DSWD embarks on youth development program for the future

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=814699
• Tuesday, October 13, 2015

(PNA), LAP/CD/MARK FRANCISCO

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Oct. 13 (PNA) –- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Northern Mindanao is embarking on an 11-module program for the children of 4Ps beneficiaries to prepare them to become responsible adults in the future.

Dubbed as the “Youth Development Sessions,” the program starts in the month of October 2015 and would last until January 2016, Kenneth Haze Sanchez, 4Ps coordinator for Region 10, said.

She said that three modules would be discussed per month, so the whole package would be finished before President Aquino would finish his term in June next year.

The modules are the following – Youth Development Sessions Orientation, Change: The Metamorphosis of a Person, Your Changing Body, The Changing Mind, Body Image and Healthy Lifestyle, Your Changing Emotions, Expressing Your Emotions, Changing Roles and Expectations, Defining Your Identity, Appreciating Your Self-Worth and Discovering Your Destiny.

Topics to be discussed include teenage pregnancy, reproductive health, decision making, peer pressure, dangerous drugs, pornography, active citizenship for nation building and similar topics.

Simultaneous to the other regions in the rest of the country, the Youth Development Sessions will be enrolled by seventh to twelfth graders or out of school youth who are children of beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer program, also known as Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

Sanchez said she expects about 40,000 attendees of the Youth Development Sessions in the five provinces of Northern Mindanao – Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Bukidnon, Camiguin and Lanao Del Norte.

She said the DSWD had earlier profiled the number of children of the 4Ps beneficiaries in the region who are between 15 to 18 years of age. Ms. Sanchez also said that sessions will be held in public schools where the enrollees are pre-assigned, depending on which barangay of municipality they come from.

During the program launch last Tuesday (October 15), National Youth Commission (NYC) assistant commissioner Earl Saavedra said the program is needed so the youthful children of 4P beneficiaries would develop into total persons.

“The YDS aims to equip the children of Pantawid beneficiaries with the necessary life skills to realize their full potential, reduce risky behavior and decrease deterrents to their development with the end goal of enabling them to contribute meaningfully to improving the condition of their families,” Saavedra said.

Aside from DSWD and NYC, the program is also being supported by the Department of Education (DepEd).

There will be a total of 500,000 expected recipients of the program nationwide, Sanchez said.