Approach to Human Resource Development
This multi-faceted, skills-training piolet program based in Angeles City is designed to facilitate and serve as a model for the emergence of similar initiatives in other parts of the Philippines and Asia. The educative component of the project, reaching from the jusges to women in prostitution, will affect the manner in which prostitution is perceived and treated. It is important to note that all of the Filipino and Canadian partners have links throughout the Philippines, Asia and the world, thus providing institutionalized bases to ensure that efforts in Angeles City will be developed and replicated in other parts of the Philippines and Asia.
The project assists Filipino partner institutions to enhance their capacity to carry out training programs, which focus on prostitution, at four levels: the judiciary, the police, the community, and the women themselves in Angeles City. Project partners in the Philippines are two government organization, the Supreme Court of the Philippines (SCP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP); two non-government organizations, the Women's Education, Development, Productivity and Research Organization (WEDPRO) and Soroptimist International of Angeles City (SI); and a university, Angeles University Foundation (AUF).
The project builds on the concept of government organization/non-government organization (GO-NGO) linkages and is at the forefront in creating dialogue between the Filipino partners as well as between the Filipino partners and their Canadian counterparts. In doing so, the project helps the partner institutions by giving tools and training to: a) the women in prostitution to help them deal with the exploitation they face; b) the larger Angeles community to help them understand the desperate situation faced by those in the sex trade; and c) judges and police to help them be more sensitive and knowledgeable about establishing a criminal court system that does not unduly punish women in prostitution.