BLDF TO LAUNCH FUND CAMPAIGN TO SUPPORT LIVELIHOOD AND DRUG REHABILITATION AMONG THE YOUTH IN BOHOL

Note on a new initiative from Bohol Local Development Foundation (BLDF):

BLDF has released the draft Project Brief for its Advocacy and Fund Campaign to support livelihood and drug rehabilitation among the youth in Bohol.

The draft will be discussed with potential partners in this new initiative. This is actually the 7^th draft proposal submitted by BLDF to various sectors in efforts to solicit support for its advocacy that a drug rehabilitation center cum mental health facility be established in Bohol.

Comments or feedbacks may be sent to: npestelos@gmail.com / info@bohollocaldev.org 

PROJECT BRIEF

ADVOCACY AND FUND CAMPAIGN TO SUPPORT BOHOL YOUTH LIVELIHOOD AND DRUG REHABILITATION PROJECT  (BYLDRP)

1.0       Background/Rationale

In recent months, newspaper headlines in Bohol tend to show that the province has become a major transshipment point, if not primary destination, for illegal drugs and that drug pushers and their victims have increased quite significantly over the last few years.

Drug-related killings and other heinous crimes, such as rape (in one case, a mother was raped by her own son who is a drug addict); physical assault, theft and robbery have become common reading fare in local papers.  More than a dozen drug pushers have been shot dead or wounded in broad daylight, in busy streets of Tagbilaran City and in the towns, in a province which used to have a reputation as being crime-free and among the country’s most peaceful places.

More than 50% of crimes committed in the province are reportedly drug-related. Alcoholism is getting to be rampant particularly among the youth.  Mental health cases have also been noted to be on the rise. 

The province with a population of more than 1.2 million has no drug rehabilitation center or a mental health facility to cope with these behavior-related problems. Family members affected with substance abuse and other addictions, mental illness, adjustment disorders and other psychological problems have to be brought to Cebu, Davao, Manila and Tagaytay City in Cavite province for their treatment.

 Indigent families in the province have difficulty seeking treatment for their affected members on account of the high costs involved. If untreated, this increasing number of individuals with various forms of addiction will lead to more crimes in the future.

Psychology students in Bohol have no access to clinical training and supervision in the province, and so they have to spend more money to go to institutions outside Bohol for their practicum and clinical internship training as required under their curriculum. This internship program is of vital importance now with the international alignment and standardization of psychology education and practice, following ASEAN integration in 2015, the open skies policy, and the free mobility of professionals and learners in the region in the years to come.

There is also the need to provide livelihood opportunities to households affected by the problems related to drug abuse and mental health to further ensure project sustainability. Engagement of clients in livelihood activities can also be part of treatment and rehabilitation to further ensure reintegration into normal community and family life after the rehabilitation phase.

Moreover, it has been recognized that without community involvement, without local communities and families accepting their role in the prevention, pre-treatment, treatment and after-care phases of drug demand reduction/elimination, it will be difficult to ensure early detection, diagnosis, appropriate intervention, and full family and community reintegration after treatment and rehabilitation.

Taking all these into account, multi-sectoral efforts are thus needed to cope with social problems caused by increasing cases of drug abuse and the rise in the number of people who need psychological intervention and other psycho-social services.

These will necessarily include:

• a comprehensive public awareness campaign aimed at enlisting people and institutions at the grassroots level in the fight against drug abuse; and

• a rehabilitation center which will combine community-based approaches with cost-effective clinical methods and a humanitarian and eclectic strategy to deal with hundreds of drug users who now inhabit practically all the barangays in the province whose presence threatens social stability and the attainment of peace and progress and represents a sheer waste in human resources.

• a mental health facility as part of the recovery center.

Taking the foregoing into account, an advocacy and fund campaign is needed for this Youth Livelihood and Drug Rehabilitation Project.

2.0       Overall Goal and Objectives

The overall goal is to raise Php 50 million in two years to meet the following objectives:

2.1       To provide out-of-school youth with skills to enable them to get employed, undertake livelihood activities, or to continue their schooling through the Alternative Learning System (ALS) or any of TESDA-accredited training institutions;

2.2       To establish demonstration sites or projects for scaling up Informal Employment and Sustainable Livelihood among families with out-of-school youth and/or drug abuse victims;

2.2       To  provide access to treatment services to drug abuse victims from indigent families and thus prevent social problems arising from drug abuse;

2.3       To implement activities related to creating public awareness about drug abuse, the need for counselling and other pre-treatment services in partnership with the Government, NGOs, academic institutions and other CSOs and target communities; and

2.4       To monitor and evaluate the progress made by former drug abuse clients to ensure post-treatment are provided for their full recovery and integration with their families and local communities.

3.0       Organization and Management

3.1       Convenor: Bohol Local Development Foundation, Inc. (BLDF)

See Annex 1: Notes on BLDF.

BLDF will facilitate the organization of the following:

3.1.1    Advocacy and Fund Raising Committee

Role: to formulate guidelines and oversee the implementation of the various fund raising activities.

To be composed of : a Chairperson and five members representing the various sectors – business; academic institutions; Government; women and youth sectors; civic groups.

3.1.2    Secretariat

Role: to coordinate activities and provide technical and administrative support to the implementation of the Advocacy and Fund Raising Plan.

To be composed of: a Coordinator; volunteers/fund campaign secretaries; office secretary/bookkeeper; researcher/IT specialist; driver.

ANNEX 1

NOTES ON BOHOL LOCAL DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION (INC.)

Bohol Local Development Foundation, Inc. (BLDF) and its predecessor organization, the UNICEF-assisted Ilaw International Center (IIC), have a combined experience of more than thirty years in efforts to address poverty in Bohol.

Over the years, BLDF has conceptualized, field-tested and replicated methodologies, systems and tools to enhance partnership with local communities and various types of institutions and organizations in poverty reduction projects. Some of these innovative processes and pro-poor planning tools (Poverty Database and Monitoring System; Ilaw ng Buhay or Light of Life philosophy and approach to development adopted globally by UNICEF in the 1980s; integrated area-based methodology) have been replicated in diverse cultural and socio-economic context both in the Philippines and abroad.

In the wake of the magnitude 7.2 earthquake which hit Bohol on 15 October 2013, BLDF implemented a community-based shelter assistance project to enable families to build transitional core houses and move their vulnerable members (the elderly, children and women, the disabled and sick) from the tents and makeshift structures to relatively safer and more secure dwellings.

With funds raised from concerned individuals and private institutions, BLDF was able to help build 150 core houses in several remote villages of Calape, Antequera, Maribojoc and Baclayon. With the announcement in August, 2014 that the Government and Habitat for Humanity have available funding to build 6,000 permanent homes for the homeless, BLDF shifted its program focus to the promotion of informal employment and sustainable livelihood among the youth, particularly those who are out of school or those in Alternative Learning Systems (ALS).

In less than a year of implementing projects for the out-of-school youth, BLDF has become convinced that a comprehensive approach is needed to address the social problems posed by the increasing use of illegal drugs particularly among the youth.  This drug abuse problem, along with alcoholism and mental illnesses, if unchecked, will negate in the process, the gains made over several decades in development efforts by the Government, its partners and the international donors. 

BLDF has sought to be part of the evolving plans and programs to address the social problems posed by the growing drug menace in Bohol. Otherwise, the achievements in combatting poverty in the province will be for naught. Hence it initiated dialogues with key sectors in formulating a response to this major concern.  #Boholdrugrehab