Department of Social Welfare and Development

The Department of Social Welfare and Development or DSWD is the government’s primary welfare agency. It was mandated by the government of the Philippines to be committed in caring, protecting and rehabilitating the unfortunate sector of the country’s population (individual, family, and community) in terms of physical, mental and social well-being. Furthermore, the DSWD was tasked to provide social welfare assistance and social work intervention in order to restore the lives of those living in the shanties of poverty.

It was formerly called as the Ministry of Social Welfare and Development, but due to the need of addressing the problem of the mass poverty, former President Corazon C. Aquino signed Executive Order 123 in January 30, 1987 renaming MSWD into the current DSWD as we know today. Under such changes, DSWD reorganized the settings, and paved a new direction for delivering social services into the community. The move spelled out the mission of the DSWD, which is to provide intervention/opportunities that will uplift the living conditions of the distressed and disadvantaged members of society and enable them to become self-reliant making them actively participate in national development.

The goal of the DSWD is to assure the wellbeing of individuals and liberation of the poor from deprivation. DSWD capitalizes on human strengths through organization of people. Its approach is more community-based to give added impetus to the developmental aspect of social services.

Its objectives are:

• to care, protect and rehabilitate social disables constituents and the physically and mentally handicapped for effective social functioning.
• to arrest the further deterioration of the socially disabling or dehumanizing conditions of the disadvantaged segment of the community level.
• to coordinate the service facilities required for such departments/agencies, governmental and non-governmental, to provide an integrated welfare package to constituents on the basis of their needs.
• to advocate for policies and measures addressing social welfare concerns.

Inline with its objectives, the DSWD offers the following services: Day Care Service, Supplemental Feeding, Peer Group Service, Protective Service, Self-employment Assistance, Child Placement Service, Special Services for Delinquent Youth, Special Service for Youth Offenders and After Care Service among others.

Contact Information:
Deparment of Social Welfare and Development
Batasan Road, Quezon City
Telephone: (632) 931-8101
http://www.dswd.gov.ph