Photo 1: Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Assistant Secretary for Special Concerns Jose Antonio Hernandez presents the Department’s Yakap Bayan trajectory in rehabilitating drug surrenderees.
Photo 2: Asec. Hernandez poses with Lucban Mayor Celso Olivier T. Dator (2nd from left) during the closing program of the the Municipality’s Basic Trainer’s Training on Therapeutic Community Modality in preparation for the DSWD Yakap Bayan Program implementation in the town. Also in the picture are Vice Mayor Armando Abutal (rightmost), and Parole and Probation Administration Regional Director Edita K. Buemio (leftmost).
“In Yakap Bayan, we embrace drug surrenderers with the goal of transforming them into volunteers, then advocates, and eventually leaders in the community able to implement disaster resiliency and response programs.”
This was how Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Assistant Secretary and the Department’s focal person for the anti-drug campaign of the administration, Jose Antonio Hernandez, described the trajectory of the Department’s Yakap Bayan program for drug surrenderers during the closing program of the Local Government of Lucban, Quezon’s Basic Trainer’s Training on Therapeutic Community Modality held at Graceland Estates and Country Club in Tayabas City, Quezon Province on June 29.
Yakap Bayan is the DSWD’s inter-agency collaborative program for the aftercare, transformation, and reintegration support for recovering drug dependents.
“We use a graduated trajectory in the rehabilitation of recovering drug dependents through disaster resiliency and response skills training. With this, magiging aware sila sa iba’t-ibang banta ng kalamidad na magbibigay sa kanila ng malasakit sa kapwa at komunidad lalo na sa oras ng sakuna (they will be aware of the different threats of disaster, making them more concerned about the members of their community, especially during disasters),” Asec. Hernandez explained.
The Yakap Bayan program of the DSWD includes six months of rehabilitation and 18 months of reintegration to the community of the recovering drug dependents. It involves the provision of different capacity building programs to the surrenderers in exchange of community service rendering.
“As we equip them with different disaster-response skills, ang mga surrenderers na ang unang tutugon sa sakuna at tutulong sa kani-kanilang komunidad. Kung dati, sakit sila ng ulo ng lipunan, ngayon, magiging aktibo at kapaki-pakinabang na myembro na sila ng komunidad (the surrenderers will be the primary responder during calamities. If before, they are the ‘headaches’ of society, now, they will become active and useful members of the community),” added Asec. Hernandez.
Lucban’s training on therapeutic community modality, which was conducted in partnership with the Municipality’s Parole and Probation Administration, aimed to empower its local implementers in providing rehabilitation and reintegration services for recovering drug dependents in preparation for the conduct of Yakap Bayan program in the town.
Therapeutic community modality “represents an effective, highly structured environment with defined boundaries, both moral and ethical, that help foster personal growth.” According to the Bureau of Corrections, this approach has been proven worldwide as an effective treatment and rehabilitation modality among drug dependents.
The training also aimed to equip the implementers in managing the proposed Pagbabago at Pag-asa Reflection Camp for drug surrenderers located in Brgy Palola, which was inaugurated today.
“Nagpapasalamat tayo sa DSWD sa pagtulong sa atin na isagawa ang ating rehab program for our drug surrenderees. Sisikapin ng Lucban na isagawa nang epektibo ang programang ito. It is a dream come true to have this project. Malaki ang magagawa nito para mas mapaayos at mapaunlad pa ang ating bayan (We thank the DSWD for helping us implement our rehab programs for our surrenderers. We will do our best for its effective implementation. It is a dream come true to have this project, as this will help us improve and develop our town),” Lucban Mayor Celso Olivier T. Dator said.
The DSWD is one of the chairs of the Rehabilitation and Reintegration Cluster of the government’s Inter-Agency Council Against Illegal Drugs (IACAD).###
