DAVAO DEL NORTE, June 24 (PIA)--- When disaster strikes, children are assured of a convergence effort among various agencies to protect them and to ensure their psycho-social needs.
The Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) has set for approval of the board the terms of reference of putting into active functions the Regional Child Protection Working Group (RCPWG) which will work as one of the technical working of the Regional Sub-Committee for the Welfare of Children (RSCWC) .
Attending the recent RSCWC 11 meeting, CWC coordinator Andre Canilang explained that the RCPWG will serve “as the central coordinating body of all child protection activities at the regional level”.
It will serve as the regional arm of the National Child Protection Group which works under the Child Protection Sub-Cluster of the Protection Cluster led by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
The RCPWG was born out of the need to closely look after the welfare of children especially during wide-scale calamities and emergencies, during onslaught of natural and even man-made disaster.
Citing the international context, Canilang explained that the international humanitarian system “recognizes child protection as life-saving, and as such child protection activities are included in the criteria of the UN’s Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF)”. The United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF leads in the international child protection cluster system.
As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Philippines is bound to recognize its universal principles which are highly relevant to humanitarian action. These principles are anchored on survival and development, non-discrimination, child participation and best interests of children.
CWC also anchored child protection on Republic Act 10121 otherwise known as the ““Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010" designed to build a “disaster-resilient nation and communities.”
Among the set goals of creating the RCPWG are to focus on protection issues that result from or have been exacerbated by major disasters at the regional level, coordinate activities to strengthen the protection of children in emergency affected areas and in other areas where the internally displaced persons (IDPs) sought refuge, and to bring together child protection groups to ensure timely and consolidated monitoring and reporting of child-protection concerns.
The RCPWG shall be composed of the regional director of DSWD, head of an NGO with region-wide coverage, members of the RSCWC, representative from the regional DSWD Protective Services Unit, Office of the Civil Defense (OCD), the local council for the protection of children (LCPC), child-focused social welfare and development agencies (SWDA), international and local NGOs working for children and during emergencies, and other concerned agencies. (PIA 11/ Jeanevive Duron-Abangan)
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