Goducate … Go And Educate! – Page 100 – Helping Asians Help Themselves

2013-08-302013-09-03

Goducate community health program in Sabah extended to students’ families

About a year ago we started a de-worming program for students attending Goducate literacy centers in Sabah. By now we are able to conduct 6-monthly de-worming treatments for all our students, which is the recommended treatment frequency for children.

Many of our teachers have told us that their students are now better able to concentrate in class and are much more active than they used to be. To monitor the effect of the program, we are using WHO’s free software to calculate all our students’ height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) and to track their growth relative to age and sex.

Students identified as severely malnourished are followed up by our community health worker.

We are going to extend the de-worming treatment to the students’ immediate families, who will be charged a nominal fee to cover the cost of the medication. To ensure that we can keep up with the program, we have trained two more community health workers, so that there is now a team of three.

Our local community health workers are also equipped with a digital blood-pressure machine and also a glucometer (for measuring blood sugar). They are trained to recognize abnormal readings and provide health advice accordingly. Villagers now approach these workers for routine follow-up to monitor their blood pressures and/or their blood sugar levels.

Through these activities, we have raised awareness among the adults of diabetes and hypertension and also of the pervasive problem of poor sanitation and its impact on their children’s health and growth.

2013-08-27

Backyard farm in Tranca, Philippines, helps family and neighbors

Backyard farming is one way by which Goducate believes that communities in poor villages can help themselves. What they grow can provide nutrition for the family, and what they save by not having to buy vegetables and fruit can go towards other family needs. Some households started a communal farm in Tranca, a village in Laguna, Philippines, towards the end of last year. Inspired by the progress that the communal farm is making, one family whose house abuts on to a piece of abandoned land needed little urging from me to cultivate that plot two and half months ago.

They prepared the beds, and Goducate provided them seeds from the Goducate Model Farm. When I visited them recently, I was happy to see different kinds of vegetables growing well. Tatay [“father”] Benny, head of the family said, “Every two days we are able to harvest okra [lady’s fingers] from our vegetable garden enough to feed my family with fresh vegetables. Our backyard garden gives us fresh vegetables and we are able to share with our neighbors. It makes them happy and we are also happy that we become a help to them”.

Other vegetables growing in the backyard are squash, potatoes, eggplants [brinjals, aubergines], cucumbers, string beans, moringa, and ginger. The fruit trees include papaya, banana, and guava. And Tatay Benny is planning to plant even more varieties to maximize the space he has.

2013-08-232013-08-24

Art contest held to mark Nutrition Day at Goducate Literacy Center in Laguna

About 60 parent-pupil pairs from the five Goducate Literacy Center sites in Laguna, Philippines, participated in the drawing contest held on Nutrition Day on July 25. That Nutrition Day was part of the nation’s observance of Nutrition Month, whose theme was Gutom at malnutrisyon, Sama-sama nating wakasan (Together, we can end hunger and malnutrition).

For the contest, the parents outlined the shapes of the different vegetables and fruits. Their children, who are attending Goducate Literacy Center nursery classes, waited with excitement for their turn to color the drawings.

In this fast-food generation, children prefer to eat junk food such as hotdogs, burgers, chips, soda, and processed food over fruits and vegetables. A study from the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) revealed that Laguna is one of the provinces with the lowest consumers of vegetables. FNRI reported that a person may eat only 92 grams of vegetables a day, whereas the daily amount recommended by the World Health Organization is 400 grams.

Eating fewer fruits and vegetables may result in hidden hunger or deficiency of micronutrients such as vitamin A, zinc, and iron. Harvest Plus reported that hidden hunger can cause blindness, stunting, lower IQ and resistance to diseases, and can increase the risks for both mother and infant during childbirth.

After the children had colored their parents’ sketches, a simple gallery of the drawings was mounted on the wall for a brief presentation, as well as for the judges to pick up the winners. Three winners were picked from each of the five Goducate Literacy Center sites (Tranca, Maitim, Sitio Ulik, Sitio 74, and Talahiban).

We hope that teaming up parents with their children in the drawing contest will inculcate in parents, especially the mothers, the value of fruits and vegetables in the daily diet, and thus the health, of their family.