by Degs Duron

TAGUM CITY (1 August) -- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Tagum Friends of the Home Foundation, Inc. (TFHFI) will lead the 30th year anniversary celebration of Mindanao's oldest home for the elderly, the DSWD Home for the Aged.

The Home with its 42 residents will mark the event on Friday, August 3 with a Thanksgiving Mass, Donation for a Cause Raffle Draw and an Anniversary Program where Davao del Norte governor Rodolfo P. Del Rosario is guest speaker.

The mass will be presided by Rev. Fr. Joseph Remegia while center manager Desiree N. Piñgol will report on the center's operations and status during the program slated at two in the afternoon.

Staunch partner of the Home for 23 years now, TFHFI is led by its President and vice president Pedro B. San Jose and Dr. Melchor S. Perdido, respectively.

Situated at Visayan Village in Tagum City, the home has an extension facility at Barangay San Jose, Monkayo, Compostela Valley where able-bodied older persons are housed to engage in farming, goat and hog raising, weeding, vegetable growing and other skills development activities appropriate to them.

Supporting the programs and services at Home for Aged are local government units; Tagum Friends of the Home; and Home for Aged Partners from non-government groups, academe, private corporations, faith-based groups, government sector, media groups, civil society organizations, and private citizens.

The home caters to older persons 60 years old and over who are either unattached, neglected, abandoned and homeless.

"With our center's multidisciplinary team, our resident older persons are provided services such as counseling, case conference, family dialog, outreach to families for reintegration, residential care, medical, dietary, literacy sessions, skills development and occupational therapy," Piñgol said.