THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has sealed a partnership with SM Supermalls to make social welfare programs and services more accessible to the people nationwide.
DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian and SM Supermalls president Steven Tan signed the memorandum of agreement (MOA), allowing the use of the shopping mall chain’s facilities of SM for the agency’s social protection initiatives and other activities.
“SM and DSWD have been partners for a long time. We share that same core value of empowering our citizens, especially the most vulnerable ones, in trying to fish for themselves,” Gatchalian said.
Through this MOA, Gatchalian said the DSWD will be able to open satellite offices in SM Malls’ Government Service Express Centers in 21 SM branches across 15 regions in the country and the Department is authorized to use SM event places and spaces for free.
“Today we sign the Memorandum of Agreement with the DSWD that will expand our Government Services Express nationwide to make DSWD programs and services more accessible to Filipinos through satellite offices in our malls, starting with 21 locations,” Tan said.
The agreement will also provide a venue for the operations of DSWD, including prepositioning of goods for disaster response as well as facilitating clearances and issuances.
Aside from using its Business Centers, SM also agreed to allow the use of its designated areas within the vicinity of its malls for social marketing events and exhibits of the DSWD.
The DSWD, as provided under the MOA, will also be able to use the existing channels of SM for its information dissemination
The agreement for the free use SM facilities and platforms for DSWD’s operations will be in effect until July 2026.
The MOA between DSWD and SM provides a more accessible platform for realizing the DSWD’s mandate to bring its services closer to the poor
and vulnerable.
