Some seventy-one Violence Against Women And Children (VAWC) desk officers from sixty city barangays completed the two-day capacity building training that seeks to improve the handling of VAW cases in their respective levels.
Earlier, the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) organized the two-day training on strengthening the capacities of VAWC desk officers in handling VAW and other gender-based violence cases to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge on how to effectively and efficiently deal with the various situations that will confront them in handling the said cases.
City Social Welfare and Development officer Liza Bulayungan said that the aforesaid training was a result of the earlier training that was conducted to the Local Council Against Trafficking and Violence Against Women and Children (LCAT-VAWC) members in partnership with Go Justice.
She added that as a commitment, LCAT-VAWC has to roll out the said kinds of trainings to the VAWC desk officers and barangay officials to hone their knowledge, skills and abilities in handling VAW and other gender-based violence cases, especially that the said desk officers are the CSWDO’s partners in the barangays in advocating gender equality and women empowerment.
The training of the VAWC desk officers was the fourth batch of trainings for them and barangay officials. The barangays with the highest number of VAW and other gender-based violence cases were the participants during the conduct of the training for the first, second and third batches. For the earlier batches, the CSWDO identified five participants per barangay which was composed of the punong barangay, secretary, VAW desk officer, kagawad on social services, kagawad on appropriation and the Sangguniang Kabataan chairperson.
For the recent batch and another for next year, she claimed that the target participants were the VAW desk officers of the barangays with or without VAW cases so that all city barangays will be saturated.
Data showed that the city catered to 98 VAW cases and other gender-based violence cases in 2021, 461 in 2022, 244 in 2023and 141 for the first quarter of 2024.
She noted that by comparison, there is an increase of 78.74 percent in 2022, decrease of 47.07 percent in 2023 and a decrease of 7.23 percent on the first semester of 2024 compared to the first semester of 2023.
Out of the 244 VAW cases, 198 were handled by the VAW desk officers in the different barangays while the rest sought assistance directly from the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) and CSWDO. Out of the 198 VAW cases handled by the desk officers, 129 were issued with barangay protection orders.
Bulayungan appreciated the hard work of the VAW desk officers and that the CSWDO is looking forward to working with them towards a significant and measurable impact in the fight for a VAW free community. By Dexter A. See
