Preda pledges to help DepEd Zambales train teachers
July 14, 2022 · By Janelle Ladiero-Bermido
Preda pledges to help DepEd Zambales train teachers
Preda News
Yesterday, 13 July 2022, the Preda Foundation represented by its president Mr. Francis B. Bermido Jr., entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with the Schools Division Office- Zambales for the implementation of the project called “Child Protection Policy and Cyber-safety in Schools.” The Project aims to raise awareness and educate school personnel about different child protection issues including those that emerged during the pandemic when schools implemented blended learning modality.
From March 2020, when the government imposed a strict lockdown, up to the present, the Preda Foundation has recorded a dramatic increase in the number of domestic sexual abuse cases in which girls as young as six years old are abused either by their biological fathers, step-fathers or live-in partners of their mothers, uncles and brothers. The trauma is exacerbated when mothers do not believe the children and instead take the side of the abusers.
Some of the children who are victims of abuse have no one to turn to except their friends and teachers they trust. That is why it is very important that teachers and guidance counselors are equipped with the attitude and skills needed to handle disclosures of sexual abuse. The above-named Project with DepEd-Zambales aims to accomplish this. The Preda Foundation is caring for about 50 of these children by providing them protective custody, education, therapy and counseling and legal assistance.
