Manila Social Welfare Department launches ‘Oplan Balik Tahanan’

A team from the Manila Social Welfare Department conducts reach-out operations to rescue street-dwellers Locally Stranded Individuals (LSIs) for the Oplan Balik Tahanan program. (Photo credit: MPIO)

CALOOCAN CITY, Sept. 15 (PIA) --The Manila Social Welfare Department (MSWD launched a program called ‘Oplan Balik Tahanan’  to give assistance to more than a hundred individuals who wanted to go back to their hometowns and reintegrate with their families amid the pandemic.

The MSWD conducted interviews and series of dialogues with street dwellers and Locally Stranded Individuals (LSIs) who were rescued through their reach-out operations.

“We spearheaded this program in order to help out individuals in our rescue facilities who might want to be reintegrated with their families in places outside the City of Manila,” MDSW Director Re Fugoso said.

Oplan Balik Tahanan will also help us decongest our rescue facilities and make them safer places to stay for the rest of our homeless and street dwellers,” Fugoso added

Applicants of the program need to undergo quarantine as part of the requirement of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases while their documents are carefully assessed and processed by the MDSW.

Fugoso also expressed her gratitude towards the offices who helped their Department make Oplan Balik Tahanan possible such as the Department of Social Welfare & Development’ Crisis Intervention Unit - National Capital Region, Manila Police District, Special Mayor’s Reaction Team (SMaRT), Manila Health Department and 2Go Travel.

The DSWD-NCR Crisis Intervention Unit was able to provide Php 403,000 as transportation assistance to the beneficiaries of the program.

Meanwhile, 68 individuals were already able to go back to their respective hometowns via land travel as of Monday, September 14 while 49 more beneficiaries are set to avail the assistance until September 30. (MPIO/PIA-NCR)



Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)

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