Projects & Activities

Program & Activities

FCED programs envision not only to meet the various needs of the street and urban poor children/youth and families in the community, but also to find an enduring solution to the pressing problem of poverty. The project highlights community organization as a strategy for implementation as it hopes to facilitate the organization of community groups and local councils for the welfare of children in areas where they live.

For the past decades, FCED has been working side-by-side with leaders of various assisted barangays in selected urban poor areas in empowering the whole community, as well as its members; and in establishing a more sustainable living through the following programs and services:

A.             Community Organization

Community organization is geared towards a systematic, planned and liberating change of process of transforming a complacent, deprived, malfunctioning, powerless, fearful and needy community into organized, conscious, empowered, self-reliant, just and humane social organization.

Group work and capacity building interventions are offered to the following:

1.    Children and Youth Groups aimed at enabling Children’s Association and Youth Core Group to implement or conduct activities geared towards child and youth development, including but not limited to gender sensitivity seminar, sports fest and workshops on children and youth issues and concerns.

2.    Parents’ Organizations which is geared towards empowering parents, creating awareness among them about child rights and helping them contribute towards the empowerment of their own community. Trainings, seminars and workshops are provided to parents in close coordination with barangay officials.

3.    Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC), which facilitates various activities towards the promotion of the welfare of children. In partnership with other NGOs, FCED and the respective BCPCs provide services such as skills training, feeding program and tutorial classes, among others. FCED also worked hand in hand with BCPC leaders and advocates in identifying cases of child abuse and referring them to proper authorities/agencies, as well as in monitoring families undergoing therapy and counseling.

4.    Microfinance, Self-Help Groups which conduct activities to help its members manage and improve their finances. These activities include financial literacy sessions, values formation/education, meetings/ consultations on income generating activities and discussions on business opportunities.

B.             Livelihood/Microfinance

Livelihood/Microfinance is one essential component of FCED’s strategy for empowerment of the poor and poverty reduction. This includes the creation of opportunities for people to generate jobs and/or augment income.

Through the Microfinance program, clients are provided with access to funds that enables them to start micro-enterprise/small business. Components of this program include savings and micro-credit, facilitating financial literacy and values formation and support for micro-enterprise or livelihood activities. For the year 2007, this program has served a total of 1,379 active clients and was able to generate 521 new clients. Majority of the borrowers are engaged in food vending, buying and selling of various items, retail trading/variety store, cell phone loading station and services such as repairs, manicure, pedicure and haircut.

Livelihood, on the other hand, provides skills training to urban poor youth and parents and engages them in livelihood activities, which will help them earn a living. Products that are produced through these activities are sold and marketed through FCED’s participation in various exhibits and bazaars in the malls, schools and/or subdivisions.

C.             Health Services

This includes nutrition, environmental sanitation, monitoring of health status of children and their parents and training of Junior Health Workers (JHWs). Children and parents are provided with medical services and assistance, such as immunization to address the direct cause of malnutrition and administration of flu vaccines to children with pulmonary tuberculosis. Trainings, workshops and education classes/sessions are also facilitated among parents, children and youth, on topics including but not limited to nutrition, reproductive health, family planning, violence against women (VAW), primary health care and waste management.

This program component also includes the Community-Based Recovery Program Ear Acupuncture Training which is a pilot project here in the Philippines. In partnership with Integrative Medicine for Alternative Health Care System (INAM) Philippines, this program is an alternative and sustainable intervention for the prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse and substance abuse among children, youth and families combined with counseling and self-help groups as well as networking with existing rehabilitation centers. Barangay 823 was selected as the pilot area due to its high incidence of child abuse, drug abuse related cases and the presence of active and functional BCPC.

D.             Educational Assistance

This involves the provision of educational support to selected children that will enable them to acquire basic formal and non-formal education through the Alternative Learning System (ALS) on Basic Education of the Department of Education (DepEd). This support will prevent children from working on the streets and will facilitate learning of appropriate Filipino values.

Children and youth who are undergoing formal education are provided with tuition and miscellaneous assistance and school supplies. They are also given tutorials, counseling and catechism sessions, workshops/seminars on children and youth welfare, as well as medical assistance when necessary. The main purpose for the provision of this “full scholarship package” is to prevent the children/youth from dropping out of school due to financial incapability.

On the other hand, the Alternative Learning System (ALS) is provided to out-of-school children and youth ages 12-16. Most of the target beneficiaries are high school dropouts who were forced to stop schooling due to financial incapability or those who were previously kicked-out of school but have expressed willingness and have shown great enthusiasm to study again. The ALS Program serves as the last hope for these children and youth to acquire learning and education. This program is carried out in close coordination with the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC).

Another component of this program is the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) which aims to increase participation of parents and children – zero to under six years old – in ECCD services and programs. It involves participation of children in center-based ECCD facilitated by Day Care Centers, schools and learning centers. Another component of the ECCD Program is the facilitation of sessions on Supervised Neighborhood Play (SNP). SNP is a home-based approach for ECCD, among children ages three (3) to below six (6) years old, where play activities are utilized to stimulate children’s developmental domains to prepare them for formal education.

The Educational Assistance Program is concerned not only with the academic development of the students but also with their spiritual, psychosocial and total well-being. All the EAP students are regularly monitored and supervised in their activities. They are also provided with various developmental trainings/activities to help them reach wise decisions and overcome daily challenges. All EAP beneficiaries as well as their parents are also required to attend the regular Values Education sessions facilitated by part-time staff.

E.             Advocacy and Protection

This program involves encouraging children and the communities to participate in building awareness and stimulate action for children’s welfare. Staff and volunteer advocates (including community leaders, street educators, student leaders) are provided with trainings and workshops/seminars on children’s rights. BCPC’s are also organized and strengthened by conducting regular meetings within and with other barangays to discuss accomplishments and share experiences and problems, as well as by continuously implementing different programs for children and youth.

F.              Linkages and Networking

This involves establishing partnerships and collaboration with other organizations to effectively implement the foundation’s programs and services and ensure their sustainability.

Families and Children for Empowerment and Development Foundation, Inc.
2290 President Quirino Avenue,
Paco, Manila, Philippines 1007
T: +63 2 561 6849
F: +63 2 562 6997
E: fced@hope.org.ph

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