In its regular session last week, the city council approved the letter-request of City Planning and Development coordinator Nigel Paul Villarete for the city council to pass a resolution allocating the said amount and for it to be charged to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation assistance fund.
A similar letter-request dated November 3 already got the approval of Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
As stated in the same written communication, the said de-worming program shall be undertaken by the Cebu City Commission for the Welfare and Protection of the Children under the auspices of the UNICEF Country Program for Children-6 in collaboration with the City Health Department, the Department of Education-Cebu City Division, and the University of the Philippines, Manila-National Institute of Health. The P1.2-million budget for the implementation of the said de-worming program is going to benefit around 100,000 children enrolled in the city's public elementary schools.
But it was made clear that the program shall only provide a single dose of the de-worming tablets, despite an estimate that for the children to be effectively free of worms, two doses each year should be administered, according to Villarete.
This is so because the de-worming tablet costs P12 each. Though the program will only cover a single dose, it is expected that this activity will not only improve the general health conditions of the city's elementary schoolchildren but will also mark improvement in their mental capability and capacity in learning in as much as there were conclusive findings of the National Institute of Health that the capacity for improved learning is directly related to worm-free children, Villarete further said. - Cristina C. Birondo