NOTES ON A NEW BLDF INITIATIVE
BLDF
has released the draft Project Brief for its Advocacy and Fund Campaign to
support livelihood and drug rehabilitation among the youth in Bohol.
The
draft will be discussed with potential partners in this new initiative. This is
actually the 7th draft proposal submitted by BLDF to various sectors
in efforts to solicit support for its advocacy that a drug rehabilitation center
cum mental health facility be established in Bohol.
Comments
or feedbacks may be sent to: npestelos@gmail.com / info@bohollocaldev.org
PROJECT BRIEF
ADVOCACY AND FUND
CAMPAIGN TO SUPPORT BOHOL YOUTH LIVELIHOOD AND DRUG REHABILITATION PROJECT (BYLDRP)
1.0 Background/Rationale
In recent months, newspaper headlines in
Bohol tend to show that the province has become a major transshipment point, if
not primary destination, for illegal drugs and that drug pushers and their
victims have increased quite significantly over the last few years.
Drug-related killings and other heinous
crimes, such as rape (in one case, a mother was raped by her own son who is a
drug addict); physical assault, theft and robbery have become common reading
fare in local papers. More than a dozen
drug pushers have been shot dead or wounded in broad daylight, in busy streets of
Tagbilaran City and in the towns, in a province which used to have a reputation
as being crime-free and among the country’s most peaceful places.
More than 50% of crimes committed in the
province are reportedly drug-related. Alcoholism is getting to be rampant
particularly among the youth. Mental
health cases have also been noted to be on the rise.
The province with a population of more than
1.2 million has no drug rehabilitation center or a mental health facility to
cope with these behavior-related problems. Family members affected with substance
abuse and other addictions, mental illness, adjustment disorders and other
psychological problems have to be brought to Cebu, Davao, Manila and Tagaytay City
in Cavite province for their treatment.
Indigent
families in the province have difficulty seeking treatment for their affected
members on account of the high costs involved. If untreated, this increasing
number of individuals with various forms of addiction will lead to more crimes
in the future.
Psychology students in Bohol have no access
to clinical training and supervision in the province, and so they have to spend
more money to go to institutions outside Bohol for their practicum and clinical
internship training as required under their curriculum. This internship program
is of vital importance now with the international alignment and standardization
of psychology education and practice, following ASEAN integration in 2015, the
open skies policy, and the free mobility of professionals and learners in the
region in the years to come.
There is also the need to provide
livelihood opportunities to households affected by the problems related to drug
abuse and mental health to further ensure project sustainability. Engagement of
clients in livelihood activities can also be part of treatment and
rehabilitation to further ensure reintegration into normal community and family
life after the rehabilitation phase.
Moreover, it has been recognized that
without community involvement, without local communities and families accepting
their role in the prevention, pre-treatment, treatment and after-care phases of
drug demand reduction/elimination, it will be difficult to ensure early
detection, diagnosis, appropriate intervention, and full family and community
reintegration after treatment and rehabilitation.
Taking all these into account, multi-sectoral
efforts are thus needed to cope with social problems caused by increasing cases
of drug abuse and the rise in the number of people who need psychological
intervention and other psycho-social services.
These will necessarily include:
- a
comprehensive public awareness campaign aimed at enlisting people and
institutions at the grassroots level in the fight against drug abuse; and
- a
rehabilitation center which will combine community-based approaches with
cost-effective clinical methods and a humanitarian and eclectic strategy
to deal with hundreds of drug users who now inhabit practically all the
barangays in the province whose presence threatens social stability and
the attainment of peace and progress and represents a sheer waste in human
resources.
- a
mental health facility as part of the recovery center.
Taking the foregoing into account, an
advocacy and fund campaign is needed for this Youth Livelihood and Drug
Rehabilitation Project.
2.0 Overall Goal and Objectives
The overall goal is to raise Php 50 million
in two years to meet the following objectives:
2.1 To provide out-of-school youth with skills
to enable them to get employed, undertake livelihood activities, or to continue
their schooling through the Alternative Learning System (ALS) or any of
TESDA-accredited training institutions;
2.2 To establish demonstration sites or
projects for scaling up Informal Employment and Sustainable Livelihood among
families with out-of-school youth and/or drug abuse victims;
2.2 To provide access to treatment services to drug
abuse victims from indigent families and thus prevent social problems arising
from drug abuse;
2.3 To implement activities related to
creating public awareness about drug abuse, the need for counselling and other
pre-treatment services in partnership with the Government, NGOs, academic
institutions and other CSOs and target communities; and
2.4 To monitor and evaluate the progress made
by former drug abuse clients to ensure post-treatment are provided for their
full recovery and integration with their families and local communities.
3.0 Organization and Management
3.1 Convenor:
Bohol Local Development Foundation, Inc. (BLDF)
See
Annex 1: Notes on BLDF.
BLDF will facilitate the
organization of the following:
3.1.1 Advocacy
and Fund Raising Committee
Role: to formulate guidelines and
oversee the implementation of the various fund raising activities.
To be composed of : a Chairperson
and five members representing the various sectors – business; academic
institutions; Government; women and youth sectors; civic groups.
3.1.2 Secretariat
Role: to coordinate activities and
provide technical and administrative support to the implementation of the
Advocacy and Fund Raising Plan.
To be composed of: a Coordinator;
volunteers/fund campaign secretaries; office secretary/bookkeeper;
researcher/IT specialist; driver.
ANNEX 1
NOTES
ON BOHOL LOCAL DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION (INC.)
Bohol
Local Development Foundation, Inc. (BLDF) and its predecessor organization, the
UNICEF-assisted Ilaw International Center (IIC), have a combined experience of
more than thirty years in efforts to address poverty in Bohol.
Over
the years, BLDF has conceptualized, field-tested and replicated methodologies,
systems and tools to enhance partnership with local communities and various
types of institutions and organizations in poverty reduction projects. Some of
these innovative processes and pro-poor planning tools (Poverty Database and
Monitoring System; Ilaw ng Buhay or Light of Life philosophy and approach to
development adopted globally by UNICEF in the 1980s; integrated area-based
methodology) have been replicated in diverse cultural and socio-economic
context both in the Philippines and abroad.
In
the wake of the magnitude 7.2 earthquake which hit Bohol on 15 October 2013,
BLDF implemented a community-based shelter assistance project to enable
families to build transitional core houses and move their vulnerable members
(the elderly, children and women, the disabled and sick) from the tents and
makeshift structures to relatively safer and more secure dwellings.
With
funds raised from concerned individuals and private institutions, BLDF was able
to help build 150 core houses in several remote villages of Calape, Antequera,
Maribojoc and Baclayon. With the announcement in August, 2014 that the
Government and Habitat for Humanity have available funding to build 6,000
permanent homes for the homeless, BLDF shifted its program focus to the
promotion of informal employment and sustainable livelihood among the youth,
particularly those who are out of school or those in Alternative Learning
Systems (ALS).
In
less than a year of implementing projects for the out-of-school youth, BLDF has
become convinced that a comprehensive approach is needed to address the social
problems posed by the increasing use of illegal drugs particularly among the
youth. This drug abuse problem, along
with alcoholism and mental illnesses, if unchecked, will negate in the process,
the gains made over several decades in development efforts by the Government,
its partners and the international donors.
BLDF
has sought to be part of the evolving plans and programs to address the social
problems posed by the growing drug menace in Bohol. Otherwise, the achievements
in combatting poverty in the province will be for naught. Hence it initiated
dialogues with key sectors in formulating a response to this major concern. -NMP/26
May 2015
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