City Hall is where it's at!

Tues Aug 5 

We head back in to City all where we plan to set up shop again for the week and we want to checkpoint with our lead client contact Ms. Judith Hasil.  Have not had much of a chance to work with her over the past few days due to the all of the city events from the week before; Lion Awards, Mayor's Birthday and the City Hall workers weekend away.  Judith has been in the middle of much of these activities so access has been limited.

We have spent the last few days, finishing mapping the processes which would be needed to start looking at what system requirements would be.  Judith and her team handle a lot of different functions and processes that are critical to the community. The budget is always constrained like most public service entities and they are making do with mostly manual processes but do have some computers in the office. It is limited though.  Relationships are so important here and the people in the office tend to know a lot of their constituents who ask for help. A very cheerful  and helpful staff and a more hands on approach then we would be used to in my home country. 

Below are some of the things the office handles and there are a lot of "one of" and ad hoc duties that can come up.  It is part office administration, hands on crisis management and also important services that include psychologists and dieticians for assisting with Childhood services. 

Financial assistance to Individuals in Crisis  (Medical, Hospital, Burial) 
Provision of Social Case Study
Provision of Assistance to Minor victims of Abuses, Discrimination, Exploitation & Harrassment
Provision of Children of Assistance to Children in conflict with the Law
Provision of Assistance to Minor Victims of Child Trafficking & Child Labour
Provision of Assistance to Women who are victims of Domestic Violence & Other forms of abuse
Issuance of Pre-Marriage counseling certificate
Assessment of Application to Livlihood Capital Assistance - SEA
Issuance of PWD ID & Disability Purchase Booklet
Issuance of Solo Parent I.D.

Ms Judith is especially proud of the SEA program and the services offered within. It provides micro business loans of 1000 pesos to help people start very small businesses. the money can be renewed in subsequent years if you prove the business is a viable concern. It is dependant on a business audit and a provision that the person undergoes training in some skilled activities. It ties in to the cities 'Women’s Welfare Program where  disadvantage women are the target beneficiaries. There is an existing Capability Building and Productivity Skills Training Center for Women in the City which offers Regular courses along food processing, baking, ISMO, sewing craft, tailoring and handicraft. Some of these courses are being offered also to some Barangays( the 18 districts within Santa Rosa) 

A minimum of 75 hours are required to finish some other courses. A total of 2,111 women have successfully completed training along sewing craft, tailoring, culinary arts, cosmetology, food processing, baking, handicrafts, candle and soap making course and meat processing course.

There is always more room to provide even more services in this area to hopefully get to a point where people need less of the other services. 


We meet with Ms Judith to confirm that our proposals from last week have met the mark and that we are pointed in the right direction to spend the rest of our time.  She confirms and expresses appreciation for the information so we are set to continue.

We get the word from the LINKIT team that the Agenda for the Aug 14 has been finalized.  They are so organized! So the Topics and speakers are set.  Great job by them in tying it together with their client and it is extra work since it is a side project.

The Traffic team continues with their  surveys and counts while the Police Team kicks off the first of 3 presentations.  We were able to send a few from the social welfare staff to sit in on them for skills Development. Topic was Social Media and using Surveys to get Info from your followers. Luciana does a great job and gets good feedback; she certainly worked hard on getting it ready.

Luciana teaching the class

Dinner is low key at the hotel restaurant and we have a good gathering of almost everyone to wind down the day.  We are there best customers!

Until tomorrow.



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