Lapu-Lapu to implement more programs for kids

CEBU, Philippines - In her State of the Children's Report at the City's Hoops Dome the other day, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza promised to implement more programs for children next year.

With more than a thousand students from public and private schools in attendance, Radaza said she would implement more programs because taking care of the welfare of children is tantamount to building and shaping the future citizens of the city.

"This is the reason why we start our programs for children even if they are still in their mother's wombs. Our health and nutrition program starts by supplementing pregnant women with vitamin "A", "iron" and "folic acid" to ensure that they give birth to healthy babies," Radaza said.

The mayor said the 38 health centers in the city provide immunization services for newborn babies up to one year old and booster immunization doses for children one year and three months old.

Children from one to six years old including schoolchildren avail of deworming services to get rid of parasites.

She said the city allocates P1,000,000 for micronutrient supplementation and another P1,000,000 for supplemental feeding program.

"This is the reason why Lapu-Lapu City has continuously topped the nutrition awards," Radaza said.

The Our Home Care Center in Lapu-Lapu City serves as an alternative home complete with facilities including foster parents and social workers who manage the psychosocial affairs of children.

We have just approved a budget of six-point-five million (P6.5M) pesos for a new, separate home care center for girls, Radaza said.

"In October last year, STAC or the Stimulation and Therapeutic Activity Center was turned over to the city government and is now one of the very important component programs of our social welfare. It provides physical, occupational and social rehabilitation for children with disabilities. It has served three-hundred-fifty (350) children from the newly born up to fourteen years old including those from the island barangays of Olanggo," the city mayor said.

But in order to help uplift and promote the quality of life of disadvantaged and less privileged children with disabilities, Radaza said the city government has allocated ten million pesos to upgrade facilities and make it the best rehabilitation facility for children with disabilities.

"One of the biggest priorities of my administration is to focus on academic excellence - high academic performance not only of an individual but of Lapu-Lapu City as a whole.

"I want to hear that the school children of Lapu-Lapu are a lot better than the school children of other places," Radaza said.

"I believe we should start education at an early age when the young mind is like a sponge that absorbs ideas easily. And to take care of that, we have seventy-three (73) Day Care Centers all over Lapu-Lapu City with more than three-thousand-five-hundred (3,500) children from ages three to four years old," Radaza said.

Those who used to be with our day care centers are now with the pre-elementary program of the Department of Education to prepare themselves for the academic world, the city mayor said. — (FREEMAN)