CALAUAN, Laguna—The Consuelo Foundation-Philippine Women University (CF-PWU) Institute of Family Life and Children Studies (IFLCS) has conducted a two-day Seminar Workshop to promote gender equality, reproductive health and responsible parenting in this province.
The seminar workshop was held on January 22 and 23 at Dewi’s Organic Farm and Resort in Pila, Laguna. It focused on improving the quality of family life and empowering families.
Participants who came from the Calauan Resettlement Project at Southville 7, Barangay Dayap, are members of relocated families who were victims of Typhoon Ondoy and former squatters in Pasig and Pasay cities.
The project manager of CF-PWU IFLCS, Glenda Relova, said that her group is trying to address the problems of the village.
“Since they are relocated from an informal settlement to a new site, they carry the concept of the style of living from where they came from. They have a problem in social preparation causing high incidents of abuse specially on women and children,” Relova said.
CF-PWU IFLCS aspire to create a structure group through building a pool of trainers to propagate information through the grassroots.
“This is the first batch of participants and we have 15 youth and 15 community leaders who learned from this workshop,” Relova said. “Information is very effective to resolve their problem by themselves and if the community is aware, especially the children, they will be more confident to report cases of abuse.”
Assistant Secretary Catherine Jonne T. Licudine-Dalen, of the Presidential Communications and Operations Office was the resource speaker.
She discussed in the workshop equality of the genders with the primary view that men and women should receive equal treatment, and should not be discriminated based on gender, including the merits of Republic Act 9710, or the Magna Carta for Women.
In the ensuing open forum, Dalen and News and Information Bureau Director Danilo S. Jamora discussed and answered queries from the participants.