The Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office VII, one of the programs that helps address the prevalence of malnutrition among children, starts the ‘wash and learn’ advocacy to complement the 120-day feeding with basic hygiene and sanitation practices for children.

Children aged 2 to 5 years enrolled in Child Development Centers and Supervised Neighborhood Play are the beneficiaries of the feeding program, the targeted group that is the subject of the advocacy.

While the community feeding continues, the SFP provides essential training to daycare workers on WASH, or water, sanitation, and hygiene education and promotion, from November 22 to 24, 2023, with selected Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) focal persons and daycare officers of Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City, and Talisay City CDCs.

The advocacy keeps children enrolled in LGU-run daycare centers informed of basic health practices and provides them with a clean and safe environment, all vital to their crucial formative years. LGUs were also updated with new information about WASH, giving them significant information on accessible water, toilet facilities, and hygiene essentials suitable for all children.

SFP Focal Person, Nutritionist Dietitian III Ma. Romilene C. Padilla highlighted the importance of the training. “Access to these kinds of advocacy education should not only keep our children taken care of with the feeding provided by the Supplementary Feeding Program, but at the same time ensure that children will be free from illness due to limited access to clean sources of water, improper toilet facilities, or poor hygienic practices. It is one way to give them a healthier start in life,” she said, citing that DSWD will train 127 LGUs with this advocacy program by 2024.

In one of the sessions, SFP trained the participants on WASH facilitation skills and conducted a simulation on proper handwashing and other hygienic practices for children enrolled in CDC with the children from Mandaue City (Cambaro) Child Development Center.

Children participated in interactive games on basic hygiene practices, such as proper dental care, grooming, bathing, and hair care.

Rynfel C. Galvez, a daycare officer from Mandaue City and one of the participants of the training, saw the training as an opportunity to advocate for a healthy community.

“Ang insaktong hygiene magsugod kini sa tagsa-tagsa ka panimalay ug nindot nga samtang bata pa, matudloan sila sa maong pamaagi. Ang among nakat-onan gikan sa among training, among dad-on ngadto sa among komunidad aron daghang bata nga makahibalo inubanan sa insaktong pagkaon (Proper hygiene starts at home and it is good that at an early age, children will be taught with these practices. What we learned from this training,will be brought to the community so that more children will know hygiene and proper nutrition),” Galvez said.

The said training was conducted to capacitate select daycare workers and create a pool of trainers with the kind of health advocacy. It was anchored on the celebration of the 31st national children’s month with the theme “Healthy, Nourished, Sheltered: Ensuring the Right to Life for all,” contributing to the survival rights of children along healthcare and nutrition.

The said training aimed to capacitate select daycare workers and create a pool of trainers with this health advocacy. The activity celebration was anchored on the celebration of the 31st National Children’s Month with the theme “Healthy, Nourished, Sheltered: Ensuring the Right to Life for All,” contributing to the survival rights of children through healthcare and nutrition. ###

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