Photo 1: DSWD Assistant Secretary for Centers and Institutions and Other Special Directives, Lorraine Marie T. Badoy sings with a senior citizen during last Saturday’s ‘Kamustahan with Lolos & Lolas’ at Golden Reception and Action Center for the Elderly and Other Special Cases (GRACES) Home for the Elderly in Quezon City.
Photo 2: A volunteer distributes food to the residents of the center.
Photo 3: Outgoing DSWD Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo converses with a senior citizen during the ‘kamustahan’.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) continues to call on the public to take part in efforts to improve the Department’s centers and institutions, specifically the Golden Reception and Action Center for the Elderly and Other Special Cases (GRACES) Home for the Elderly in Bago Bantay, Quezon City.

According to DSWD Assistant Secretary for Centers and Institutions and Other Special Directives, Lorraine Marie T. Badoy, the improvement of the Department’s centers and institutions is  among the top priorities of the DSWD.

“I go to GRACES several times a week these days. It is now top priority of the Department—where all our resources will be put forth to make sure this Center will be the haven it was meant to be,” said Asec. Badoy.

The Assistant Secretary, her team, private citizens Pia Castro, Michelle Reyes, Etheny Apostol, and Ayvz Acuna, and some volunteers have been organizing a Kamustahan with Lolos and Lolas at GRACES regularly.

Over the weekend, Asec. Badoy was joined by outgoing DSWD Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo, Undersecretary for Operations and Promotive Programs Malou Turalde Jarabe, Assistant Secretary Aleli B. Bawagan, some DSWD employees, and volunteers in another Kamustahan with the elderly at the center. The group dined with the residents and bonded with them through singing and dancing. They also distributed snack packs to the senior citizens.

One of the four residential facilities of the DSWD for the elderly, GRACES is home to about 300 senior citizens who have been neglected and abandoned by their families.

The facility can only accommodate 200 occupants, but the number of its residents has increased as senior citizens rescued from the streets by social workers and of the local government units of the National Capital Region (NCR) are also brought to the center.

The congestion in GRACES has resulted to deprivations for the residents — for instance, there are no enough medical equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, and beds.

“I thank Sec. Judy Taguiwalo. It was she who gave me this assignment. I heard how, when she saw GRACES and Jose Fabella Center for the first time, she wept. And when I went, I saw clearly why she did. These centers had fallen by the wayside and had ceased to be the havens for the least of us that they were meant to be,” Asec. Badoy said.

“The DSWD is creating a Crisis Management Team to take over these two centers. And the Department has joined hands with the private sector, with LGUs, nursing/medical schools and corporations to ensure we give this project our best shot,” she added.

Outgoing Sec. Taguiwalo has earlier appealed to the general public to help the Department in providing better care and services to the elderly.

“Ang pangunahing dapat tumugon sa mga pangangailangan ng mga residential facilities natin ay ang gobyerno. Ngunit dahil limitado lamang ang tulong na kayang ibigay ng ating pamahalaan, malaking bagay kung ang ating mga kababayan at ang komunidad ay tumulong din at magbigay ng tulong para matiyak  na may mas maayos na serbisyong matatanggap ang ating mga lolo at lola(The government should primarily respond to the needs of our residential facilities. However, the assistance that it can provide is limited. Given this, it is also important that even private citizens and the rest of our communities help and pitch in so we can provide better care and services for our elderly who rely on our compassion and assistance,” she earlier said.

“We will make sure that the DSWD centers and institutions will do what it is that they’re supposed to do—basically, be places of healing and comfort for some of our most helpless kababayans,” said Asec. Badoy.

For possible partnerships and volunteer work, the public may coordinate with the office of Asec. Badoy at 709-1467 or 931-8101 local 420 and 421.###