The Open Heart Foundation is an active member-organization of the National Council of Social Development (NCSD).  Its programs are focused on the four basic rights of children as grouped by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as: Survival, Development, Protection and Participation Rights.

Open Heart Foundation Worldwide, Inc. (OHFWI) is a non-stock, non-profit, non-government organization founded by Robert LeGore in 1992. Robert LeGore was an American barrister who served as public defender for youth offenders in the USA. He believed that if children and youth are given the opportunities and experiences by which to develop their potentials, they would become self-directed, responsible, creative and productive members of society.

Last February 28 to March 1, 2017, the Open Heart Foundation conducted a training on “CASE MANAGEMENT PROTOCOL IN HANDLNG CHILD ABUSE CASES”. This was participated in by thirty (30) pax from multi-disciplinary teams that address child abuse cases. They were composed of social workers, Philippine National Police (PNP), Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) desk officers and Municipal Health Office (MHO) representatives from the LGUs of Carmona, Silang and GMA in the province of Cavite. This is one of the major training workshops that the Foundation had conducted for 2017 under its Child Abuse Prevention and Community Intervention Program (CAPCIP).

The General Objective of this activity was to equip the participants with knowledge, attitude and skills necessary for an effective and efficient management of child abuse cases. At the end of the two-day training-workshop, the participants should have been able to:

1. Gain new knowledge on the case management process;
2. Enhance the existing case management services and improve access of clients to needed services;
3. Review the case management protocol specifying roles, functions of key players, defining flow of referrals, requirements and documentations; and
4. Strengthen collaboration among service providers engaged in preventing and responding cases of abused children.

The resource speaker /facilitator of the said training-workshop was Ms. Leah Lanzuela of the Pangarap Foundation, also a member-organization of NCSD. She is a professor and a registered social worker with a Master’s Degree in Social Work.

Rosalinda T. Perez is the Executive Director of Open Heart Foundation.