DAVAO City (DSWD XI) – From January to June this year, a total of 38,996 individuals- and families-in crisis received assistance through the Crisis Intervention Unit of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Davao Region Office.
“For the first semester this year, we disbursed a total of Ph 132,420,444.44 to cover material assistance like transportation, medical, burial, educational and financial, said Director Mercedita P. Jabagat, DSWD.
Yearlong, the DSWD crisis unit provides integrated services to individuals and families who are indigent, vulnerable, disadvantaged, in crisis or in any difficult situation. Other eligible for the assistance are transients, repatriates, deportees, abandoned, student-in-crisis, former rebels, and families of personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines who were either killed-in-action or wounded-in-action (KIA/WIA).
Apart from financial and material assistance, our crisis unit also provides psychosocial intervention and referrals to other agencies for services not available in DSWD, Director Jabagat said. She added that the assistance extended is based on the assessment and recommendation of social workers.
Financial assistance is a monetary support in the form of outright cash or guarantee letter (GL) addressed to service providers or establishments to augment the client’s resources.
Those seeking assistance should bring any valid Identification Card and Barangay Certification. They must include the following: for medical – Medical Certificate, Hospital Billing, Doctor’s Prescription and Laboratory Request; for burial – Death Certificate and Funeral Contract; and for educational – Enrolment Assessment Form, Validated School Identification Card and Statement of Account.
Each client must undergo screening, verification and assessment prior to provision of his/her requested assistance or service.
The DSWD Memorandum Circular No. 11, Series of 2019 or the Implementation of Assistance to Individuals and Families in Crisis Situation is consistent with Republic Act No. 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018. (DSWD)