TUNGO SA MAS MAAYOS NA PANGANGALAGA NG MGA BATANG KALYE

The Digitization of the Monitoring System for Street Children in Muntinlupa City

MUNTINLUPA CITY

Muntinlupa City, being a highly urbanized city, is home to one of the highest concentrations of street children in Metro Manila (Ronda, 2015). Recognizing this, the city's Ordinance No. 2022-032 (Revised Welfare Code for Children) Section 32 emphasizes a monitoring system intended for street children. This essential policy must be implemented in all nine (9) existing Barangays.

KEY STAKEHOLDER: THE SOCIAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT (SSD) OF MUNTINLUPA CITY

The Social Services Department (SSD) are the social welfare department of the City of Muntinlupa. SSD spearheads the social welfare services of the city which includes programs and project on child and youth welfare, family and community welfare, women's welfare, welfare of the elderly and disabled persons; community-based rehabilitation programs for vagrants, beggars, street children, scavengers, juvenile delinquents, and victims of drug abuses; livelihood and other pro-poor projects; nutrition services and family planning services (City Government of Muntinlupa) .

In the context of the aforementioned ordinance, the department is in charge of implementing a program for the welfare code. The department is headed by Ms. Analyn Mercado alongside records and legal head Atty. Abraham Palce.

ORDINANCE NO. 2022-032

(WELFARE CODE FOR CHILDREN)

"SECTION 32. Street Children. - Rescue operations undertaken by the city government to take street children away from the streets shall be conducted in accordance with pertinent laws on the protection of children and in a manner that takes into consideration their rights and dignity. Such rescue operations shall be governed by the primary objective of helping street children change through transformation, reformation and rehabilitation processes that will equip them with the proper values, skills, training or education in order to become productive and responsible citizens in the future Every effort shall be exerted by the city government to reconcile street children who are separated from their families unless this shall not be to the best interests of the children concerned."

THE PROCESS

The group first embarked on their initial fieldwork visit on March 8, 2024 at the Social Services Department in Muntinlupa City. SSD's work is to ensure the well-being and welfare of society’s most vulnerable members, and are tasked to provide support and assistance to individuals or families facing difficulties. They are regarded as the sole key stakeholders as they spearhead the monitoring system in the city.

Scanned Copy of the Physical In-take Sheet

THE POLICY CHALLENGE

The City's current monitoring system is done manually and through a handwritten manner in printed forms that they call "in-take sheets", and are only stored in a filing cabinet, the records are highly susceptible to damage, loss, and unauthorized access, jeopardizing the security and privacy of the information gathered from street children.

Palce (2024) asserted that they also still require transportation for delivering the in-take sheets to and from the SSD to other departments. Moreover, whenever the person in charge encounters familiar faces of the children, they still have to sift through the hundreds of papers to look for their files. The current system is slow and tedious. Thus, the challenges are ensuring and maintaining the security of the data and information gathered from the street children, increasing efficiency in their monitoring system, and lessening their administrative load.

THE SOLUTION

Digitized In-Take Sheets through Google Forms, Data Gathering through Google Sheets, and storage of all files in Google Drive

The group's crafted solution is the digitization of the SSD's street children monitoring system. This digitization of their “in-take sheet system” will be implemented through the Google ecosystem: Google Forms serving as the digitized in-take sheets, a connected Google Sheets for the data gathering, and Google Drive for the storage of all files.

GOOGLE DRIVE + DIGITIZED IN-TAKE FORM + GOOGLE SHEETS

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SOLUTION:

Transitioning into a system of automation will ensure that the number of street children, and all relevant information, will be easily accessible to the designated personnel of SSD.
Through platforms like Google Forms, the information will be updated in real time, and only authorized people from other offices will be able to access the inputted data.
The software can also summarize data, create graphs and percentages automatically, all automatically from the input in Google Forms, and place these data in Google Sheets which they can also save offline and store in a Google Drive.
Digitization would eliminate the need for physical transportation of the handwritten in-take sheets.
It would enable easy retrieval of a child’s history. There is an added section in the Google Form where members can upload a photo of the child being monitored for easier identification as this is not done in the current system.

INSTRUCTION MANUAL + VIDEO TUTORIAL

A step-by-step tutorial and guide on how to navigate the digitized system is provided to ensure that such a monitoring system may be easily maintained and learned.

FEEDBACK FROM SSD

Meeting with Atty. Palce, SSD's Records and Data Privacy Officer

“We have perused the Google documents which you have sent and it is impressive.”

"Mas efficient siya, mas maganda yung digital kasi mas mabilis."

The digitized system has already been sent out for testing, and Atty. Palce has already disseminated such a system to the SSD's division heads. In fact, he is already making a recommendation for the adoption of the group's solution to their office. Overall, the department has been receptive to the recommended solution as it is said to increase efficiency in their monitoring work.

References:

Social Services Department (SSD) – City Government of Muntinlupa. (n.d.). https://muntinlupacity.gov.ph/departments-offices/social-services- department-ssd/

Mercado, A. (2024, March 8). Children Welfare Code of Muntinlupa: Monitoring System. personal.

Palce. (2024, March 8). Children Welfare Code of Muntinlupa: Monitoring System. personal.

Ronda, R. A. (2015, January 10). DSWD identifies 10 areas with the most street kids. Philstar.com. https://www.philstar.com/metro/2015/01/10/1411303/dswd-identifies-10-areas-most-street-kids

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