The DSWD Field Office Eight, under the leadership of Director Nestor Ramos, is bent on developing some 40 male employees to become more gender sensitive family members and strong advocates of anti-violence against women and children (VAWC).

To be able to pursue its end, the agency conducted late March of this year a three – day orientation dubbed as “Gender and Development : Gender Responsiveness in the New Normal Situation.” The activity was a continuing education for participants to be gender sensitive and for them to know better their parenting roles using the gender sensitivity approach, Federico Pagayanan, president of the MOVE DSWD Eight Chapter said.

The activity also focused on the basic survival and rescue in case of calamities, with gender sensitivity consciousness.

MOVE stands for Men Opposed to Violence Everywhere, “an organization of men who committed themselves to be actively involved in the elimination of VAW or violence against women. It is also a group of caring, pro-active and principled men who are dedicated to the cause of making the Philippines free from VAW.”
With the MOVE members coming from various organizations, including the government, private sector, academe and non-government organizations, the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) formally launched the MOVE to sustain and institutionalize, as well as to systematize its efforts, being the policy advisory body of the Office of the President.

Meanwhile, OXFAM Gender Officer, Henry Abawag, emphasized in his talk that “women’s right is human right,” and mentioned that there is “power imbalance between men and women.”

Abawag is also a member of the MOVE at the national level.#