Caring for other people’s children

The author (left) with Lola Salud (center) and her "kids" and a DSWD official at right.

(This article appeared in the 18 June 2006 issue of Philippine Star’s Starweek magazine) 

 

 

 

 

Saludita Buton or Lola Salud, 53, has ten children and eight grandchildren.  During the day, she babysits up to five other toddlers as a volunteer day-care mom for children of poor working mothers.  She does this in a space less than 20 square meters adjacent to her home in Barangay Catadman, Catmon,
Cebu.   

Maricel Dicdiquin, 25, was nine months pregnant  but she was still doing field work as a mobile child development worker, walking for hours just to reach and teach parents about proper child care in Balindog,Kidapawan City.  She earned  a P1,500 monthly honorarium from the local government and barangay.  It’s a job she has to do, she says.    

Tita Daya, 62, receives P1,000 per month as a day care worker in Barangay Flores, Catmon, Cebu, looking after up to 80 children daily, ranging from three to five years old.   When asked if that was enough, she smiled “I just let it be enough.”   

Erlinda Lagunsad, a 45-year old midwife, provides primary health services such as immunization, maternal health care, and a feeding program for kids in barangay Mateo,Kidapawan City.  Her husband, a government employee, agrees to her doing all these things from their home, 24/7, “because he loves me and he knows I love my work”. 

They are the field workers of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Early Childhood Development (ECD) project who were honored for their   dedication and exemplary performance, which most of them do not consider work at all.  They themselves are not rich but practically volunteer their services to care for other people’s children. 

At the awarding ceremony early this year, DSWD Undersecretary Luwalhati Pablo noted that they were carefully selected for their responsiveness, innovativeness, effectiveness and sustainability in implementing their respective programs and by how well they utilized their facilities. “Both national and regional officials focused on identifying and selecting the most inspiring effort among all the ECD project achievements,” she stressed.   DSWD was the lead agency implementing the ECD project with the Department of Health and Department of Education.  It was funded by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.  About three million children were served by the project through its various service delivery packages starting in  2000, reaching 1,522 barangays in 132 municipalities in 13 provinces where half of the country’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable children are located.  

The project provided integrated services in health, nutrition, psychosocial development and early education for disadvantaged children of up to six years old, considered as most critical to the child’s development.  At this early stage, the physical, mental, social, and emotional facilities of the child are being formed which requires proper nutrition, health care, mental and psychomotor stimulation, emotional nurturing, social acceptance and support.  Otherwise, certain irreversible damages may occur and the child may not function properly as an adult.  One example is lack of iodine which can cause cretinism.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ECD packages were for Rural Health Midwife; Day Care Worker; Child Development Worker; and Day Care Mom.  The project also provided newly-constructed or renovated barangay health stations, day care centers and mothers’ homes.  Other services were the Expanded Program on Immunization, Integrated Management of Childhood Illness, Micronutrient Malnutrition Prevention and Control Program; Parent Effectiveness Service, and Early Childhood Experience. 

The local government of Catmon, Cebu was twice awarded for its strong commitment to the project due to the strong commitment of Mayor Estrella Aribal, herself a former teacher.  “I saw that this project can help the people of Catmon a lot, especially the poor children in the farms. Before the program started, when we were still a fifth class municipality, we really had a major malnutrition problem.  So ECD was really able to help.  And our service providers were really devoted to their job.  Even if the farms were far, they would go.  And the farms here are in steep hills, no roads, and in really difficult conditions,” the Mayor said.  Now, access is easier with the construction by the local government.of roads in practically every barangay in Catmon.  

The project upgraded existing facilities and significantly improved services.  From dilapidated nipa huts with rainwater from the roofs dripping on the children, the centers are now made of concrete and with sturdy roofs.  Almost 250 barangay health stations and 933 day care centers were constructed, while almost 500 barangay health stations and almost 1,000 day care centers were either repaired or upgraded.     

Lola Salud provides a temporary baby-sitting facility for infants up to two years of age.   She sings and dances for them, reads books, gives them milk to drink, and does  practically everything that any mother should do.  She does not get any salary; only fish, or rice, or small monetary donations.  She has been doing this for five years and has cared for more than 30 children.  “She just likes to take care of children,” the Mayor said proudly of Lola Salud who was a long-time barangay health worker.  Her day care home, which was constructed with funding from the ECD project, has toys, a baby crib, table and chairs, blackboard, children’s books, cassette player and tapes, cooking and eating utensils, water jug, and thermos.   

“Those who are rich can afford maids.  Those who are poor and have to work can leave their children here with me.  But those without work cannot leave their children here,” Lola Salud says, even if the child is her own grandchild.  “This is my service to my fellow man.  I just want to take care of children,” she says and will do so until her last  breath.   

Rosalinda Densing or Tita Daya, as she is fondly called, has been a day care worker in Barangay Flores, Catmon for ten years.  Out of the 80 children under her wing, 30 attend the morning session, and 50  in the afternoon session.  “I just want to help, no matter what the honorarium.”  She herself has eight children, ages 22 to 39, and 13 grandchildren, one of whom goes to her afternoon day care session.  At day care, the children learn arts and crafts, good manners and behavior, and have outdoor and indoor activities.  She is all alone but it’s not a difficult task because the children are old enough to behave by themselves.     

Tita Daya with kids from her afternoon class in Catmon, Cebu.

 

 

The ECD team inKidapawan City also received a DSWD award.  They attribute their success to good teamwork, regular inter-agency meetings and consultations.  The fact that all of them in the team are mothers also helps. “I am very grateful for their cooperation,” says Erlinda Solis Doblas, the city’s social welfare and development officer and ECD action officer.  “I am also inspired seeing them cooperate because our vision for our children here in Kidapawan is common.  We want our children here in Kidapawan to be totally developed,” Ms. Doblas says.  “We want them to be competitive in whatever field.”   Under the project, expectant mothers are now aware of the benefits of pre-natal care.  “In our time, we were not.  Things are different now.  Now we say, why is it only now that we have ECD?  We wish it were earlier so that our own children could be even brighter,” Ms. Doblas jokes.   Enriqueta Prudente who represents DepEd in the team, points to the positive influence the project has on the child’s school performance.  “They perform better and can already socialize, because of the training they got from ECD workers,” she says.  The project provides the centers with vitamins and medicines, usually for upper respiratory tract infection, gastroenteritis, and diarrhea which are the top illnesses in the area, according to Dr. Jocelyn Encilenzo, the city health officer.   

Marilene Capilitan, city nutrition officer, noticed that the children who go to feeding sessions prefer natural food rather to nutripacks, whose taste they easily got tired of.  Mothers also bring in whatever vegetables they have in their own backyard to augment the food at the supplemental feeding for the malnourished.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To motivate the mothers to have their children immunized, they are given free grocery items and a certificate that the child has been fully immunized.  The city boasts of a 99 percent fully immunized children (FIC) rate 

The Kidapawan City ECD dream team led by Erlinda Solid Dobias (2nd from left).

 

 

Erlinda Lagunsad, a 45-year old rural health midwife, received the  best service provider award.  “I probably won because of the cooperation of the people.  I did not know I won because I am doing this daily on my own.  This is my routine,” she says.  She provides prenatal check-ups, immunization, and delivers babies.  The ECD project provided her materials and supplies.  Ms. Lagunsad knows the job has many challenges and problems and she only has reassuring words for her peers.  “We should accept all the challenges.  And we should be willing to work hard,” she said.       

Her husband, Anacleto, is proud of her being best midwife for she is “a best wife too”.  “By supporting her, it’s just like saying I am supporting the people because I also happen to be a public servant,” he says.  He has been a government worker for 30 years.  “People here in the barangay are very lucky having a midwife like her who could be on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  They can always call her,” he testifies. They  brought up their own children to help people in whatever way they can.  So it was no surprise that their youngest child chose to be a nurse. 

An important component of the project was the Parents Effectiveness Service (PES) which involves the parents in the ECD program.  More than 100,000 parents and other caregivers attended PES training. Parents were taught about existing laws on the rights of the child, responsible parenthood, responsibilities on early childhood development behavior, management of younger and older children, issues in husband-wife relationships, prevention of child abuse, health care and parenting issues.  More than 8,600 service providers like day care workers and midwives have been trained. 

In Balindog, barangay officials passed an ordinance stipulating that at least one parent has to attend all 9 modules of the seminar (at two hours per module), before a barangay clearance can be issued.  About 930 households have attended the seminar, and only 100 households have not attened. 

Maricel Dicdiquin, the mobile child development worker, did not have a hard time giving birth, a fact she attributes to  the exercise she got walking five kilometers or two hours to her target families.  “There’s no tricycle there and even if you ride the tricycle, you have to pay the fare back and forth.  So you just leave early so you can reach your destination,” she relates. 

“They depend on me.  If I am scheduled to go there, I have to go there because they are waiting for me,” she stresses.  “They appreciate the stories, the toys, and the materials that I bring because they have not seen those before.  I pity them because, I wonder who will do this for them when I leave?” she says, referring to the warm welcome she always gets in the remote areas. 

She laments the lack of awareness among poor rural folk about parental responsibilities.  “Some just give birth and give birth. Even if the midwife or the barangay health worker advises them to go on family planning, they are stubborn and do not listen.  But when PES was implemented, they were taught that they have a responsibility to their children, not just to themselves, because they need to feed them, educate them,” she says.  “It’s okay for people have children as long as they can feed and educate them.  But those who can’t might have to resort to child labor because they need money for their family,” she warned. 

Erlinda Lagunsad in one of her feeding sessions at her home/barangay health center.