MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur (PIA)--The Community and Family Services International (CFSI) has recorded a total of 4,328 residents here and in Lanao del Sur province who have benefited from its protection component.

Mohammad Nasif Elias, CFSI's protection officer, said this covered 95.6% of the people they wanted to help with their projects.
Interventions included giving out security papers (SECPA), leading protection and stakeholder forums, and giving orientation on protection from sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (PSEAH), gender-based violence (GBV), and a referral pathway.

Marawi City and the towns of Ditsa-an Ramain, Marantao, Piagapo, Lumbayanague, and Masiu were among the places that were covered.

Elias said that 3,801 people have already been given SECPA, especially copies of certificates of live birth, thanks to their partnership with the local registrar and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

He explained that they paid attention to this, considering that legal papers like birth certificates were and would always be needed whenever one desired to avail of government services.

"Lumabas ang demand on birth certificate. Sa CFSI, as much as possible, priority natin na maaddress ang rights ng internally displaced persons (IDPs). Binigyan namin ng attention ang pagfacilitate ng pagkuha ng birth certificate para magamit ng clients natin sa pag-access ng services," said Elias.

(The demand for birth certificates emerged. For CFSI, as much as possible, we prioritize addressing the rights of IDPs. We focused on making it easier to obtain birth certificates so that our clients could use them to access services)

In addition to the SECPA, Elias also mentioned that 463 citizens participated in forums they organized to raise awareness of the public's access to government services.

He shared as well that 369 people have been oriented on PSEAH, GBV, and referral pathways.

On the other hand, information and education campaigns, especially about the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 and other top medical concerns, were started to promote the right information and a healthy lifestyle.

Elias said that the work mentioned was only a small part of what his organization did.

He promised that they would keep helping until the people they were helping got over the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2017 siege.

"Rest assured na hindi tumitigil ang CFSI na mabigyan ng atensyon ang concerns at issues na dinudulog niyo sa aming opisina (Rest assured that the CFSI does not stop in giving attention to the concerns and issues you address in our office)," said Elias. (CRG/PIA-10/Lanao del Sur)