Capacity Building of Implementers of PagHILOM

A five-day seminar on Capacity Building of Implementers of PagHILOM was organized by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in close coordination with Balay Rehabilitation Center, Inc. last December 7-11, 2015 in Madison Garden Hotel, New Manila, Quezon City.

The objectives of the five-day seminar are as follows:

1. Discuss the prevention of torture and the rehabilitation of the direct victims and their affected families as an area of social work practice.
2. Identify the role of social workers in torture prevention and the rehabilitation of victims, both in the regional units and the in the local government units.
3. Describe the process, approaches, and guidelines in the case management of the victims of torture and their affected family members.
4. Discuss the process and results of the pilot case under the Comprehensive Program for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (CPRTV).
5. Determine the referral protocol between the mandated agencies, including their civil society partners.
6. Agree on a work plan to continue the pilot implementation in 2016.

The participants of the said seminars were representatives from the different region offices of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and from the office of the Regional Human Rights Commission. The civil society sectors were also represented in the seminar. There were representatives from BAWGBUG, Medical Action Group, FIND, and Balay.

The seminar also served as an avenue for the participants to provide input on the PagHILOM Framework – the CPRTV guidelines developed by the DSWD – to take into account the suggestions and considerations necessary in the improvement of the framework before it is finalized.