A total of 497 individuals who are members of street families all over the 17 Local Government Units in Metro Manila have been reached out by the Department of Social Welfare and Development – National Capital Region (DSWD-NCR) from January to September 2015.

Through the Department’s continuing reach out operation in partnership with the LGUs, barangays, MMDA, NGOs and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), some of said families were transported back to their provinces through the provision of transportation assistance under the DSWD’s “balik probinsya” while others were either endorsed to LGUs, DSWD Centers or returned to their families.

Meantime, some reached out families were registered in the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer for Homeless Street Families (MCCT-HSF) which were included in the overall 4,408 beneficiaries of the program since 2012 to present.

“Since 2011 to present, DSWD-NCR continuously reaches out street families under the Comprehensive Program for Street Children, Street Families and Indigenous Peoples especially Bajaus that aims to address the prevalence of street dwelling in Metro Manila in coordination with LGUs,” said by Regional Director Ma. Alicia S. Bonoan.

Director Bonoan also emphasized that the Department also receive reports of street children sightings through the official twitter account @savestreetkids wherein a dedicated reach out team assess the clients’ need.

Against the current issue of rounding up of street families in Manila due to the coming conduct of APEC summit in the country, the total number of reach out families implicates that the reach out activity is a regular operation of the Department due to the incidences of street families’ sightings in Metro Manila.

Meanwhile, among the abovementioned number of MCCT-HSF beneficiaries 3,044 has already availed the Alternative Family Home (AFH) and now in their safe home rented by DSWD as among the component of the program. ###