A visit to a Child Development Center in Barangay Quilaw in Tolosa town of Leyte can bring joy to one’s heart. Seeing 17 kids in their well-kept uniforms while their young mothers/grandmas/guardians watch over them is altogether heartwarming.
In rural communities, folks have learned the value of providing proper nutrition to children in the first four years of their life, with the mandatory establishment of Child Development Centers (formerly Day Care Centers) in every barangay.
DSWD has a Supplemental Feeding Program (SFP) which comes as an addition to the regular meals of children who are currently enrolled in Child Development Centers.
This is in support to Republic Act No. 6972, otherwise known as the “Barangay – Level Total Development and Protection of Children Act”, and hereinafter referred to as the child development service, community or church-based early childhood education programs initiated by nongovernment organizations or people’s organizations, workplace-related child care and education programs, child-minding centers, health centers and stations; and Home-based programs, such as the neighborhood-based play groups, family child care.
Already, the SFP has catered to some 725, 561 pre-schoolers (not cumulative, according to records per year) regionwide, since it started in 2011.
The likes of Lola Josephine Perez, 61, whose third “apo” is enrolled in the program, is grateful that her grandson is being prepared for school at an early age. Standing as surrogate mother, she has seen the positive impact, specifically of the SFP, in the emotional, social, and physical development of the children.
She says in the local dialect that fellow “caregivers” like her have realized that proper nutrition provided to children at the right time helps them GO, GROW, and GLOW into healthy individuals.
These kids, who are of pre-school age, (three to four years old) and included in the SFP, are offered meals over a period of ten months. Regular weighing is done to check on the progress of each child.
Parents or guardians themselves have been involved in the program – they volunteer to prepare the daily meals (on rotation basis). One can see in the faces of mothers that they take pride in what they are doing, for contributing a service beyond that which benefits their own children but for the entire community!
Lola Josephine talks that she enjoys planning the menu and doing the marketing. She proudly tells that the kids are given a variety of food in a week – one day, they have spaghetti; in another time “odong” noodle soup or malunggay with eggs, or sometimes, fried chicken. The mothers sometimes even provide kids with “Nido” milk with bread and “palaman” (sandwich spread).
“He is getting more active now,” speaks mother Hermelina of another CDC child, four-year-old Leonardo Parado, Jr. “When he enrolled in the sessions just this August, my son was at 11 kilos. Now, I know he has added weight, the mother narrates. Indeed, the tiny boy is now bubbling with life as shown in his interaction with other young children at the center.
For folks of Barangay Quilaw, there is nothing like the dedication for work and passion for children of long-time Child Development Worker, Ligaya Sabalsa. A Bachelor of Science in Education graduate, she settled working in her own community as a volunteer, for 17 years now!
She receives a monthly honorarium of Php1,200.00, each from her barangay and the municipal government, for this service. Sabalsa said, undernutrition is contributory to reduced school performance and is a big factor in “attracting” children to learn while they play under her supervision.
Daily activities at the center includes story telling/poetry/music/table games, and sessions on how to keep one’s body healthy, knowing the GO, GROW, and GLOW food, among others. There are a total of 541 children attending Child Development Sessions in 16 CDCs located in 15 barangays of the municipality, SFP In-Charge and Social Worker Maria Leonora Theresa Costelo of the DSWD Field Office VIII says.#