DSWD-7 holds summer camp for CICLs

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office VII recently held a summer camp for 57 community youths at its Regional Rehabilitation Center for Youth (RRCY) in Argao, Cebu.

With the theme, "A Search for Identity: Strengthening of Socially Acceptable Behavior and Life Skills", the three-day summer event conducted last month helped resident youths discover the abundance and positive potentials within them.

Kerwin Macopia, DSWD-7 information officer, said that the annual summer camp provides Children in Conflict with the Law (CICL) with treatment and interventions to enable them to improve their social functioning with the end goal of reintegration to their families and the communities.

RRCY Center Head Bibiana Horvath, on the other hand, said that cooperation and unity among the youth was the ultimate goal of the summer camp.

She added that they wanted to inculcate the positive values to the youth, so that when they go out from the center, these values will be with them as they continue their journey.

The minors, according to Macopia, learned the value of division of labor through the center-initiated activity on appropriate life skills which includes prioritization, budgeting and tasking of responsibilities. The activities also taught the youth on how to communicate better and how to interact with people.

Macopia, who is also one of the speakers, tackled about the effectiveness of communication including topics on how to communicate properly, how to improve listening skills and how to lessen communication gaps while inside the rehabilitation center.

Other lecture topics included personal hygiene, courtship, dating and sex. At the same time, there were also camp games that determine their perseverance, patience and endurance.

Macopia said that the summer camp culminated with a talent show entitled "RRCY Got Talent" were youth participants showed their abilities in singing, dancing, and acting and even playing the beat box.

The RRCY is a residential institution that provides care and rehabilitation to male juveniles in conflict with the law who are 9-17 years old. — (FREEMAN)