SAN FERNANDO CITY, Aug. 29 (PIA) – With the aim to provide safe spaces for the youth, the City Government of San Fernando, La Union inaugurated the 34th Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Teen Center on August 20.
“Ang pangarap ng mga opisyal ng SK San Fernando ay magkaroon ng matatakbuhan ang ating kabataan kung sakali na sila ay hihingi ng tulong at tahanan na masisilungan,” said SK Federation President and Ex-Officio Sangguniang Panlungsod Member Mark Anthony Ducusin.
All centers are equipped with different rooms such as chat or net hubs, youth development desks, conference or meeting areas, and private counselling rooms.
The center located at the second floor of the Marcos Building will be the main hub, that will function as the monitoring and data gathering office of the project.
“We are very grateful for the passion and commitment of our SK members, the volunteers, our partners and the officials of the city government for making this dream for our youth possible. We would not be able to accomplish this without their 100 percent support,” added Ducusin.
According to Ducusin, the other centers are located in the barangays and is targeting to finish all of the 59 other teen centers before his term ends in 2022.
He also said that the project’s sustainability is supported by an ordinance called the Safe Spaces Ordinance, and is an innovation and modification of the common anti-pregnancy ordinance, which aims to educate young women about the ill effects teenage pregnancy.
“These centers are symbols of the convergence of ideas focused on providing protection and assistance to our youth relative to reproductive health, education, employment, social welfare, and livelihood,” said City Councilor Maria Rosario Eufrosina Nisce.
The inauguration was attended by the SK Federation officers, officials from the local government and the Commission on Population-Regional Office 1, volunteers and other partner regional line agencies.
In closing, Ducusin said, “This is not the only project that we will be establishing, there will be more projects like these for the youth, because in the City of San Fernando, we will make sure na walang kabataan ang maiiwan.”
In 2019, the first ever center was established in Ilocanos Sur village.
It was adjudged recently as the Most Outstanding SK Project under the health category beating more than 200 projects established in the Philippines. (JCR/AMB/AHFF/PIA-1)
