Some of the victim-survivors of child labor who were identified and provided with various interventions in Carcar City, Cebu Province by DSWD-Field Office VII through the Strategic Help Desks for Information, Education, Livelihood, and other Developmental Interventions or SHIELD Against Child Labor.

 

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), through its Strategic Help Desks for Information, Education, Livelihood, and other Developmental Interventions or SHIELD Against Child Labor, identified some 1,400 victim-survivors of child labor in 2022 and provided them with services and interventions that are suitable to their needs.

Through the SHIELD program, the identified child laborers were provided with holistic and immediate interventions at the community level including the provision of educational assistance from the DSWD and case referrals to other government agencies.

The program implementers from the different DSWD-Field Offices are using multi-layered strategies under the SHIELD program to help address child labor, particularly its worst forms. The components of this program include the establishment of helpdesks at the barangay level and a local registry system on child labor for referral and convergence of support services, ensuring that immediate and appropriate interventions are available at hand.

Meanwhile, the DSWD continues the implementation of the SHIELD Against Child Labor across all regions of the Philippines to assist child laborers and as part of its efforts to help eliminate child labor in the country.

This community-based project, which was pilot tested in 2017, is now institutionalized and is being implemented in 16 DSWD Field Offices throughout the country since 2021. The Field Offices will directly collaborate with their partner local government units in the implementation of SHIELD against Child Labor in their areas to further expand the scope of the program

Through the initiatives of the SHIELD against Child Labor, the DSWD is committed to protect children from becoming victims of child labor. ###