MALAYBALAY CITY (PIA)--Through Project ProtecTEEN, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has started the emotional and psychological restoration of teenage mothers in Malaybalay City.

Based on the latest data, Malaybalay City is among the top five cities with the highest teenage pregnancy cases, with 591 girls giving birth at a young age.

ProtecTEEN Project Team Leader Jelie Barceta of DSWD Central Office told Field Office-10 Assistant Regional Director for Operations Ronald Ryan Cui that her team will provide psychosocial support to the city’s 21 teenage moms.

"ProtecTEEN Project serves as a platform that provides an enabling environment by increasing young mothers' parenting and responsibilities awareness to help them attain developmental tasks, cope with the demands of parenting, and perform their social roles," Barceta said.

The first batch of adolescent mothers, aged 10 to 19, will undergo the process for five days in close coordination with the DSWD-10 Field Office's Social Technology Unit and the trained implementers of Malaybalay City's local government unit (LGU).

DSWD and the Commission on Population and Development launched the ProtecTEEN project, August 10, 2022, to provide psychosocial support and other interventions for teenage mothers and their families. Project ProtecTEEN is a social welfare intervention model that intends to create a supportive environment for adolescent mothers and their families.

This framework's strategy is to give teenage mothers more power by giving them direct social services and help, referring them to other agencies, and getting together peer advocates. The project is one of the ways that the government helps young mothers and their children. (DSWD-10/BGE/PIA-10/Bukidnon)