BUTUAN CITY – A total of 35 service providers composed of social workers, lawyers, police officers, representatives of DOJ, NBI, OWWA and NGO attended the training on the use of referral and database system for trafficked persons held here recently. The training was conducted by DSWD Caraga through the CoPIPAGV or the Comprehensive Pilot Intervention Plan against Gender Violence. This program is supported by the Agencia Española de Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID).
COPIPAGV is a three-year plan with the over-all goal of improving the health condition of women, adolescents and girls through improved preventive measures, support services and reintegration of victims/survivors of violence against women and children in the CARAGA Region. It is structured around three components, which match the cycle phases of the VAWC – Prevention phase, Intervention phase and Reinsertion phase.
Ms. Lyca Sarenas, National Project Coordinator of CoPIPAGV said that the training was aimed at providing knowledge and skills to the service providers dealing with trafficked persons on the use of the new system and tool, particularly on the database system in monitoring cases of trafficking.
The training, Sarenas said, also hoped to enhance the capacities of the participants in the provision of psychosocial recovery; social economic reintegration services to victims-survivors of trafficking by engaging them in a hands-on exercise on the use of referral and database system.
“I am happy that I attended this training because it is very useful to us. Through this Philippine Anti-Trafficking in Person Database it will be easier for us to monitor the status of the victims,” MSWDO Ma. Rosarita J. Salino of Mainit, Surigao del Norte. She added that this system facilitates prompt submission of reports about the victim’s progress in relation to rehabilitation of victims and their integration to their families and communities.
The trainers who have intensive knowledge and experience on trafficking in persons, data base management system and provision of livelihood or capital assistance services included former DSWD Undersecretary Lourdes G. Balanon, DSWD Assistant Bureau Director Gemma B. Gabuya, April Ma-Anne Mendoza and Mr. Roberto Corpuz. # # # (Social Marketing Unit, February 25, 2010)