DAVAO CITY—The Davao City Special Needs Intervention Center for Children (DCSNICC) was formally opened to clients, particularly indigent children with special needs.
The five-storey building located at the Alternative Learning System compound beside Davao City’s Peoples Park provides services that include Developmental Pediatric Consultation, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, Special Education, Audiology services, Social Work Services, and Parent and Caregiver Training.
According to former city councilor Antoinette Principe who authored City Ordinance 0230-20, the DCSNICC would be a modern one-stop shop facility that will be offering programs and services, such as comprehensive assessment and evaluation to come up with diagnosis. This is the first of its kind facility in Mindanao.
“During the critical period of zero to 6 years of a special child, close monitoring physically and psychosocial is required and this is what the Davao City Special Needs Intervention Center undertakes to provide,” Principe said during the inauguration of the center.
She said those parents who want to enroll their children there are requirements to be submitted as the primary focus of the free services are indigent children with special needs.
“Since the implementing agency is the CSWDO there are requirements such as certificate of indigency…and case study so first muduol jud ta sa atuang mg barangay kay sila naga issue certificate of residency and kada barangay duna tay social worker na assigned,” Principe said.
(First we go to the barangay since they will issue the certificate of residency and every barangay has an assigned social worker.)
The social worker in the barangay will issue the certificate of indigency and conduct the case study needed for the center.
The DCSNICC will be operated by the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) which has employed 42 personnel to man the facility.
Basically ang atoang i-cater diri kadtong indigent, primary gyud indigent kay tungod kini libre. Naa ta’y social worker, naa tay mga therapist naa gyud mga specialist nga mag-assess sa mga bata para mahibal-an ang ilang disability ug paunsa sila mahatagan og intervention,” CSWDO head Julie Ann Dayaday said.
(Basically we will cater indigents, the indigents will be our primary clients as the services for them will be free. We have social workers, we have therapists, we have specialists to assess the kids to determine their disability and how we can provide intervention.)
The P70-million facility is complete with a sensory gym, playground, intervention and transition program area, mess hall for parents, and an aquatherapy area. Principe said however that the center is still in a soft opening as they are awaiting more equipment to arrive.
According to data, Davao City has about 2,345 children under six years old with special needs.
Principe, who is also a parent of a child with special needs authored the ordinance that was passed by the City Council in February 2020 and enacted by then Mayor Sara Z. Duterte in April of that year. However the construction was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. (PIA/RGA, photo from CIO Davao City)
