The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) launched a new program that will provide animal-assisted therapy to children and women in the agency’s residential care facilities.
In the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed over the weekend, DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian and PAWS executive director Anna Cabrera formalized the implementation of “Angel Pets.”
The Angel Pets, in collaboration with PAWS’ Dr. Dog Program, aims to improve the emotional and psychological welfare of the agency’s clients, particularly the young girls at the Marillac Hills-National Training School for Girls (NTSG) in Muntinlupa and women at the Sanctuary Center in Mandaluyong, the two pilot Centers and Residential Care Facilities (CRCFs) for the program implementation.
According to the DSWD chief, Angel Pets is a cutting-edge program that will enlist Dr. Dogs to do the therapy for the agency’s clients. It includes a set of animal-assisted interventions focused on improving the individual’s psychological well-being through interaction with volunteer Dr. Dogs.
“Like our four-legged friends, our clients have undergone exploitation, abuse, they have been hurt, and they are going through trauma,” Gatchalian said in his speech introducing the program.
“There are so many anecdotal stories of how pets can calm us down and how therapeutic it is to have pets. But nobody has actually documented it in long-term research in the Philippines… Hopefully, this research can help us better understand how pets can actually heal, not only those undergoing severe trauma but also help us manage work-life balance,” he added.
Angel Pets is an intervention strategy centered on the animal-assisted therapy program. It is designed to aid rehabilitation and reintegration in vulnerable groups by incorporating positive and enjoyable animal interactions into therapeutic and supportive processes in select DSWD CRCFs.
