It is the policy of the State that placement of children through adoption would be the last resort. Their family may have failed to provide the best care for them but if we will dig deeper, both the child and their family were just victims of circumstances hence, while children are in the center, we provide the best alternative family care while working out the best suitable permanent placement for them.
The Reception and Study Center for Children (RSCC) is a residential care facility which provides 24-hour group living on a temporary basis to children whose needs cannot be adequately met by their families and relatives over a period of time and to those children who were abandoned or voluntarily relinquished due to reasonable cause.
It was on April 12, 2016 when the Macuha siblings were reintegrated back to their birthmother after a year of stay at RSCC. Of the four siblings, three of them were temporarily sheltered at RSCC after they were left by their birthmother. Due to the difficulties encountered by their widowed mother in raising and in providing their needs, Jonafe has reached to the point of abandoning her children. She became a single parent after the father of her children passed away, which caught her psychologically and economically unprepared.
After several home visits and series of counseling extended to Jonafe, she has come to a realization of keeping her family intact and wanted to take her children back in her custody. With the concerted effort of the Barangay Council for the Protectin of Women and Childre, the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office of Cabanglasan, Bukidnon, the Community Facilitator of Modified Conditional Cash Transfer Program and the Reception and Study Center for Children of the Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office 10, Jonafe has drawn strength and courage to live her life better with the presence of her children.
Two years after their family reintegration, the siblings are all attending school and enrolled as Grades 1 and 2, while their female sibling is enrolled in a Day Care Center. Jonafe is trying her best in performing her role as a mother to her children. Being a mother grantee of the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer Program of the DSWD, she has gained learnings from the seminars and orientations conducted during their Family Development Sessions specifically in strengthening her parental obligations towards her children.
The cash grant she is receiving every two months helps her a lot in providing the health and educational needs of their children. While she invests the livelihood assistance she received into hog raisin, she is also actively involved in their livelihood association where they started to run a small sari-sari store.
The siblings are now settled with their family. There’s nothing like foster care or adoption could replace their contentment and happiness being home together with their mother and sibling. The interventions provided to the children and their family not only addressed the problem at the moment but also preserves the family which serves the best interest of the child.
Written by Faith Sabulana / Rosanel Pague, DSWD-10