DSWD enters into agreement to empower social workers through scholarship grants
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has established a partnership with key stakeholders to provide scholarship grants that will support social services professionals' continued education and training.
DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Aldaba-Lim Foundation Inc. (ALFI) president Alberto Aldaba Lim and University of the Philippines Social Action and Research for Development Foundation Inc. (UPSARDFI) Executive Director Jocelyn T. Caragay at the DSWD Central Office in Quezon City on Dec. 13.
The Aldaba-Lim Memorial Scholarship Program, which will finance the graduate studies of selected and deserving social workers of the DSWD, was formalized through the MOU.
“We want to empower our service providers, both internally in government and externally through our social welfare and development agency partners, so that we can operate in the optimal standard that there should be in delivering the social services to our most needy and most vulnerable citizens,” Gatchalian said.
Under the MOU, the UP-College of Social Work and Community Development will receive a P2.5 million grant from the ALFI for scholarship programs and endowment, which will benefit 41 DSWD social workers who are pursuing graduate studies or short courses.
“We are very thankful to the foundation for the endowment for our own service providers who will venture into further studies,” Gatchalian said.
He assured the DSWD partners that the scholarship program would be implemented transparently and fairly, so that only the most deserving applicants would be eligible for the grant.