Bringing Early Childhood Development to the Philippine Poor
SALUDITA BUTON, or Lola Salud, 53, has 10 children and 8 grandchildren of her own. But, for the past five years, she spends her day babysitting 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, Philippines.
Lola Salud is one of the field workers of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Early Childhood Development (ECD) project, who were recently honored for their exemplary performance and dedication to work, which most of them do not consider to be work at all. While not rich, they practically volunteer their services to care for other people’s children.
For example, 62-year old Rosalinda Densing, or Tita Daya as she is fondly called, receives P1,000 (about US$20) 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 and answered, “I just let it be enough.” At the awarding ceremony early this year, DSWD Undersecretary Luwalhati Pablo noted that these workers were recognized 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, funded by ADB and the World Bank, with the Department of Health and Department of Education. Since 2000, about three million children were served by the project through its various service delivery packages, such as for rural health midwifes, day care workers, and child development workers. It reached 1,522 barangays in 132 municipalities in 13 provinces where half of the Philippines' most disadvantaged and vulnerable children are located. The project also constructed or renovated barangay health stations, day care centers and mothers’ homes. It 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. The project provided integrated services in health, nutrition, psychosocial development and early education for disadvantaged children of up to six years old. These early years are considered as most critical to the child’s development, when the physical, mental, social, and emotional facilities of the child are being formed, and when they require proper nutrition, health care, mental and psychomotor stimulation, emotional nurturing, social acceptance and support. Otherwise, irreversible damages may occur and the child may not function properly as an adult. The lack of iodine, for example, can cause cretinism, a condition of severely stunted physical and mental growth. To care for the children under her wing, Lola Salud 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 paid or receive any salary; just fish, or rice, or small monetary donations. “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, a blackboard, children’s books, and a cassette player and tapes. “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. Tita Daya, who has been a day care worker for 10 years, says, “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 the day care, the children learn arts and crafts, good manners and behavior, and have outdoor and indoor activities. Maricel Dicdiquin, 25, still did 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, up to her ninth month of pregnancy. Because of the “exercise” she got walking five kilometers or two hours to her target families, she says she did not have a hard time giving birth. “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. For her efforts, she received a P1,500 (about $30) monthly honorarium from the local government and barangay. It’s a job she has to do, she says. “They depend on me. If I am scheduled to go there, I have to go there because they are waiting for me. 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. Erlinda Lagunsad, a 45-year old midwife, received the best service provider award. She gives primary health services such as immunization, maternal health care, and a feeding program for kids in barangay Mateo, Kidapawan City. The ECD project provided her materials and supplies. “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 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.” Her husband, Anacleto, is proud of her being named best midwife for, according to him, 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 to have a midwife like her who could be on duty 24 hours a day, 7 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. 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,” the mayor said. “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, without roads, and in really difficult conditions,” she said. Now, access is easier with the construction by the local government.of roads in practically every barangay in Catmon. The ECD team in Kidapawan City also received a DSWD award. They attribute their success to good teamwork, regular interagency meetings and consultations. The fact that all of them in the team are mothers also helped. “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 get 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 rate An important component of the project was the Parents Effectiveness Service (PES). Over 100,000 parents and other caregivers 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, and health care and parenting issues. Over 8,600 service providers, such as day care workers and midwives, have also been trained. In Balindog, barangay officials passed an ordinance stipulating that at least one parent in each family has to attend all nine modules of the seminar before a barangay clearance can be issued. Over 90% of the households have already attended the seminar, with only about 100 households left. Dicdiquin 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. This article appeared in the 18 June 2006 issue of the Philippine Star's Starweek magazine
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