The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is again tapping social media to keep street children from begging on the streets this Christmas season.

In a post on Twitter on Nov. 8, Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said: “Dear Twitter users, please help DWSD monitor street children by tweeting to @savestreetkids reports of where they are. You can also send pix.”

Four years ago, during National Children’s Month of November, the DSWD started using social media to keep track of street children by launching a program called “I-Report Batang Lansangan sa Metro Manila.”

In a statement, Taguiwalo also appealed to the public yesterday to give street children food instead of money when they cannot help responding to the urchins’ plea for alms.

The welfare agency chief said giving alms to street children only encourages them to roam the streets, especially during the Christmas season.

“We understand how many of us feel sorry for the street children who clamber up jeepneys asking for alms and are moved by compassion to give them money,” Taguiwalo said. “While we mean well by doing this, this actually serves to encourage children to continue doing this dangerous activity – they can get seriously injured as they get on and off jeepneys or run through traffic to go after vehicles and passengers. If we really cannot help ourselves, we can give food instead.”

At present, the DSWD manages a team dedicated to respond to needs of children and families at risk on the streets, including Sama-Bajau groups, through the @savestreetkids Twitter account.

Taguiwalo also encouraged generous individuals and groups to organize community Christmas parties or caroling sessions for the children.

She said people could also donate to the DSWD and other organizations that help street children, or implement charity drives where all the proceeds can go to the DSWD and its units with programs for street children.

“There are many ways by which we can help these children. Individually, members of the public can report where the street children are and send the DSWD the information. It’s very easy to open a Twitter account and to take pictures on cellphones to send them to us,” Taguiwalo said.

She added the problem on the proliferation of street children is a major concern of the DSWD.

“The present state of children seen roaming on the streets is one of the main concerns of the welfare agency. We are alarmed on the increasing number of children who stay most of the time on the streets to help their families to earn a living. Most of them no longer attend school and are deprived of their rights to a safe environment, education and their most basic needs for food, health services and safe shelter,” Taguiwalo said.

“They do not enjoy a normal childhood because of extreme poverty that can be traced in most cases to the failure of the state to provide adequate social support,” she added.

Taguiwalo said the DSWD has a Comprehensive Program for Street Children and Street Families that provides a package of services, interventions and opportunities for children and families-at-risk on the streets to live productively in a safe environment.

Under the program, 5,398 street children have been given educational assistance, while some 15,557 street children have attended activity sessions in several DSWD activity centers in Metro Manila from 2011 to 2016, the agency said.

According to a 2015 report by a local non-government organization that focuses on the plight of street children, street children comprise about 1-3 percent of the children and youth population of major cities in the country.

It is estimated that some 30,000 children roam the streets of Metro Manila and the National Capital Region.

On a national scale, the number of children living in the streets is pegged at 250,000.