Valenzuela City has been chosen by the Coalition of Services of the Elderly, Inc. (COSE) to be the pilot area of a German government funded program in the country, which will be implemented in the city for three years.
COSE is a non-government organization that addresses issues concerning the elderly including poverty, exclusion and invisibility.
COSE met with the 35 chapter presidents of the Alliance of Senior Citizens of Valenzuela City, Inc. recently at the city social hall to revisit and assess the present status of the federation and to discuss about the Strengthening Social Accountability in Philippine Social Protection Program.
The program has two parts, social protection and strengthening social accountability.
Social protection program includes social pension and PhilHealth, while the strengthening social accountability seeks to intensify the responsibility and capabilities of the older people’s organizations and local program implementers for the best execution of the benefits and programs concerning the elderly.
Kathleen Valdez, focal person for Older Persons Program of the City Social Welfare and Development Office, said the program aims to come up with an operational manual, to have a sharing of ideas about the implementation of social pension program from different places, to have a driven mechanism and a citywide profiling.
Valdez said Valenzuela City is the only city selected by COSE in the National Capital Region for the implementation of its projects benefiting the senior citizens due to the city’s existing programs for the elderly and recommendation from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
In 2014, Valenzuela City was hailed as an Age-Friendly City by COSE and DSWD for building age-friendly communities.