PART 1: INSIDE STORIES
I. Arrival and Registration
At 9:30 in the morning, the CHR XI Team arrived at DAPECOL. To ensure the safe
implementation of the program, the CHR Team went through the jail’s security screening
process. Shortly after, the CHR team joined the participants in the plenary hall and
initiated the registration process. A total of 45 participants were registered for the activity.
II. Opening Ceremony / Preliminaries
At 10:05 AM, the activity was formally opened with an invocation. A multimedia
presentation of the song Dakilang Maylikha by Gary Granada served as the morning
prayer. This was then followed by the singing of the Philippine National Anthem. Acting
as the main facilitator of the activity, Mr. Niel Peter Arendain asked Ms. Lainne Lyn Glase
to share her welcome message.
In her message, Ms. Glase expressed her gratitude to CHR for leading the
implementation of the activity. She then gave a historical background of the facility and
briefly explained the purpose of the activity. She articulated that the activity will include a
focus group discussion with the inmates. Given so, she encouraged the participants to
share their experiences and recommendations. She also assured the participants that the
information that will be gathered will form part of the recommendation that will be
forwarded to the proper authorities, so they can improve the services to people in
detention facilities.
III. Rationale of the Activity
Mr. Alfonso Balansag Jr. gave the rationale of the activity. He explained that the activity
is mainly divided into two parts. The first part is a focus group discussion that will allow
CHR to listen to the experiences and situations of women in detention. Mr. Balansag
added that the second part of the whole day activity is a capacity building session for the
officers and personnel of the facility. He also emphasized that the entire activity is in line
with CHR’s commitment to improve its programs and services. In closing, he asked the
participants to be open to the process and to actively engage in the discussion.
IV. Simultaneous Focus Group Discussion
At 10:21 in the morning, participants for the Inside Stories activity was divided into three
groups for the focus group discussion. The groupings were already pre-determined by
the CHR team and participants were grouped according to age and sexual orientation,
gender identity and expression. Each group was also assigned with a documenter and a
facilitator who will ease out the discussion. The participants were also asked to sign a
consent form prior to the actual implementation of the focus group discussion. After this,
participants were also given the time to introduce themselves in their small group. The
tables below outline the responses of the participants during the FGD:
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