The
word Balay, in many Philippine dialects, means house, shelter
or home. That is how our Partner-Beneficiaries regard us – an institution
that offers psychosocial healing alliance with traumatized survivors
of internal displacement, political detention and other human rights
violations.
Balay was founded under the auspices of the late Senator Jose Diokno and Dr. Mita Pardo de Tavera on September 27, 1985. The institution was first called the Philippine Center for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims. It was established, at first, to provide immediate medical and legal services to political detainees, to document cases of torture, and to develop a program to facilitate the re-entry of these victims into society. In the 1990s, the country witnessed the rise of the phenomenon of internal displacement due to armed conflict and aggressive implementation of development projects. As entire families and communities were forcibly driven away from their communities and sources of subsistence, psychosocial distress among the victims became intense. In response, Balay offered its psychosocial rehabilitation services among traumatized internally displaced persons or IDPs as it continues its therapeutic partnership with political prisoners, ex-detainees, torture victims and other survivors of political repression. Caregivers, health professionals, lawyers, human rights activists and social workers have either volunteered their services or joined the institution as full time staff. Sympathetic partners locally and abroad donated funds and equipment. Balay workers listened to the problems of the victims and made other people feel and understand their situation. The institution soon become appreciated as an institution where broken and tormented survivors of human rights violations can find sympathetic ears and helping hands. Balay extends psychological help through debriefing, trauma counseling, grief management, self-awareness, and recovery. It adopts the Family System Approach in psychosocial rehabilitation and engages in community-based strategy of assisting families and communities rise above their ordeal from victims into survivors. At first, Balay provided only legal assistance through the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG). But later, it offered scholarships and loans for livelihood projects for former political prisoners and their children to mitigate the ordeal that they went through. Psychological help through counseling and medical assistance have also become parts of Balay’s commitment through the efforts of Dr. Mita Pardo de Tavera who brought along the voluntary participation of health professionals such as psychologists, surgeons, dentists, pharmacists and nurses By helping to rehabilitate the victims and survivors of human rights violation Balay takes steps so that the tormented victims will not just waste away. They are cared for and brought back to their place in their family and community as productive, rational, self-reliant and empowered individuals. Balay believes that a person’s mental health and overall well being is directly related to his or her social environment. This interface creates a psychosocial continuum which should be protected from disruption by internal displacement, political repression and similar traumatic events. We further believed that peoples’ movement for a just and humane community rests on a population that is fit in terms of the most accepted indicators for social well-being and thus capable of managing their own lives as well as the affairs of the community. Preserving and nurturing the social bedrock by helping restore those who actively contributed to organized people’s actions is Balay’s contribution to the process of social empowerment for better conditions in society. To fulfill its objectives, Balay works through its program and provides a combination of various services to partner-beneficiaries based on their assessed needs. It practices standard methods of interventions and have recognized and developed indigenous ways to help people cope in difficult situation. As part of its psychosocial rehabilitation services, Balay’s provides the following services towards the rehabilitation and empowerment of its partner-beneficiaries: _
Debriefing, Counseling and Therapy BALAY make interventions that are relevant to the lives of its partner-beneficiaries in the light of the country’s economic, political, and socio-cultural situation. As a human rights institution, it renders psychosocial rehabilitation services to victims of human rights violations in the Philippines. Specifically, it caters to the needs of victims of internal displacement arising from development aggression and armed conflict; political detention; extra-judicial killings or summary execution; and to survivors of enforced disappearance. As a development institution, it envisions a free, just, and humane society. It aspires for a nation where respect for human rights and dignity abounds, where each individual can freely and fearlessly live his/her political convictions and determine his/her social, economic, and cultural development. BALAY further envisions a society that promotes genuine progress based on a just and equitable distribution of wealth, a society led by a government that safeguards its own people and the environment. To attain its vision, BALAY strives to help the victims and survivors of human rights violations reintegrate to society and regain their coping capacities towards active participation in societal transformation. In partnership with various civil society groups, BALAY shall proactively take part in initiatives and efforts that are geared towards the promotion, protection, and advancement of human rights, locally and globally. Having laid down the foundation and necessary requisites of its psychosocial rehabilitation work, BALAY projects that as it terminates the displaced communities it has served and assisted, the communities have already achieved rehabilitation, empowerment, and self-reliance. BALAY’s primary goal is to provide principled and holistic relief and rehabilitation assistance to victims of human rights violation regardless of creed, race, religion, and gender. With the set goal, BALAY forge healing and therapeutic partnerships with client-beneficiaries to help restore their normal functioning and regain capacities for active participation in family and community affairs and in the process, in society in general. Internal displacement always causes devastating impact on the families and societies. The children, women and other marginalized sections of society are hit hard. With the onslaught of displacement, Filipinos are denied access to land and livelihood; it deprives them of shelter and security; it shatters their right to live in peace and enjoy their right to development. Dispossession and deprivation experienced by the people often lead to psychosocial crisis which, when left unchecked, breeds a more profound psycho-emotional condition among the internally displaced persons. In this light, BALAY defines the traumatized victims of internal displacement as its primary clientele. The internally displaced persons are those who were affected by armed conflict, clan wars, counter-insurgency operations and evictions brought about by incursions of development projects. Former political prisoners may avail of BALAY’s services within the five-year period of their release from detention. Still, priority will be given to those who are most poor and needy, especially those who have no immediate resources from their families or other institution and have no regular income at the time of referral. Balay continues its therapeutic partnership with political prisoners, ex-detainees, torture victims and other survivors of political repression as its secondary clientele. Mindanao is the site of the single biggest phenomenon of internal displacement in the country since the last World War. The trend in displacement incidents shows that the armed conflict in Mindanao is to produce more internally displaced persons in the country than the so-called development aggression. Moreover, the total war response in the year 2000 of the Estrada government against the Bangsamoro struggle for self determination has prompted the institution to make a strategic decision to respond to the mass exodus brought about by the armed conflict in Southern Philippines. To serve the traumatized person/family victims of internal displacement, the institution has set up two additional regional offices in Mindanao aside from its existing office in Western Mindanao based in Zamboanga city. The two new offices are in Central Mindanao based in Cotabato City and in Southern Mindanao based in Davao City. |
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BALAY
NATIONAL OFFICE
#25 Maalindog
Street, UP Village, Diliman, Quezon City 1101 BALAY Staff and Officers: Ernesto
A. Anasarias Program
for Survivors of Torture and Organized Violence Program
for Research and Development Lobby
and Advocacy Unit Finance
Unit Administrative
Unit
#023 Villamarzo
Street, Kidapawan City, North Cotabato Mindanao
Program for IDPs |
