The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-6 reopened its Day Care Center and re-established it as the DENR Gender and Development (GAD) Day Care Center cum Women’s Center and Lactation Station to provide adequate facility for the needs of the department’s women employees and their children.
The GAD Day Care Center cum Women’s Center and Lactation Station is a safe space for women to gather and share their thoughts and ideas regarding their plights as well as to provide them with a facility to cater to their motherly needs and of their children’s security and primary education while they are at work.
“This is another victory for DENR Region 6 when we talk of gender mainstreaming. The establishment of the GAD Day Care Center Cum Women’s Center and Lactation Station is in pursuit of our aspiration to make our department a child friendly organization by having the facility as one of the enabling mechanisms we have in gender mainstreaming,” said Forester Edna B. Locsin, chairperson of the GAD Focal Point System and Chief, Planning.
DENR Regional Director Livino B. Duran said the establishment of the Day Care Center has helped the students, who were also children of DENR employees, in their academic and holistic growth, honing them to be successful in their own chosen career.
“The daycare center of DENR 6 substantially made an impact not only in the lives and career of the working mothers and working parents of the department but also to the holistic formation of their children. Many of them are now professionals in their own chosen field of endeavor,” Duran said.
Since the operation of the Day Care Center from November 1996 to the present, the center has produced 579 graduates. The Center focuses on the child’s positive self-image and love of learning while incorporating the lesson on the care for the environment.
Duran also emphasized that DENR 6 will continue to be a second home for its employees, providing them with their needs and ensuring their productivity while at work.
“We want the women of DENR region 6 to have a domicile of their own during our office hours in times of necessities. We will do our best to assure that while they are working their children are safe and secured,” he said.
Through the expanded services of the GAD Day Care Center cum Women’s Center and Lactation Station, the DENR aims to create a positive impact to the lives of its employees by transcending to become an agency which champions gender equality and women empowerment. (DENR-6)
