(Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 14, 2005, p. A19.)
THE TWO boys played unobtrusive games as their elders engaged in team-building exercises and discussed details of health plans for child-friendly barangays in their town.
Jude Michael Palce, 3, is the son of Natividad Palce, 46, a health worker from Barangay 5 of Balangkayan town. His playmate, John Mark Calzado, 5, is the grandson of Nenita Calzado, 46, a councilor from Barangay Guinpoliran of the same town.
The two women were among the 27 participants of the first Barangay Health Committee Training on Community Health Planning, held in Borongan, the capital town of Eastern Samar, in February. All came from Balangkayan, 25 km away, and all are members of barangay health committees.
The three-day training was conducted by three professors from the University of the Philippines-School of Health Sciences (UP-SHS) in Palo, Leyte.
"Bringing young children to a training like this is allowed by Plan," said Nenita Calzado in explaining the presence of her grandson and his playmate in the venue at a pension house. Plan is the shortened name of Plan Philippines, the country component of an international nongovernment organization that works with local partners toward child-friendly communities.
Plan International
Plan was founded in 1937 by John Langdon Davis and Eric Muggeridge as Foster Parents Plan for War Children. It aimed to provide food, clothing, shelter and education to the countless children victims of the Spanish Civil War.
When the war ended, the organization expanded its programs to other countries and became Foster Parents Plan International Inc., which later changed to Plan International, and now Plan.
The group currently operates in 45 developing countries in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, and the Caribbean. Its international headquarters is in the United Kingdom.
Funds come from sponsors in 17 developed nations — Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, UK and the United States.
Among the 12 program countries in Asia, Plan Philippines was established in 1961. Its operations started with informal settlers in Metro Manila and expanded to provinces in Southern and Northern Luzon, and the Central Visayas.
At present, it operates in nine provinces (Isabela, Pangasinan, Occidental Mindoro, Masbate, the Camotes Island in Cebu, Southern Leyte, Northern Samar, (Western) Samar, and Eastern Samar), 36 towns, and 428 barangays.
In Eastern Samar, Plan projects and activities are managed by the Eastern Samar Program Unit (ESPU) with office in Borongan. They are implemented in 62 barangays in the towns of Balangkayan, Llorente, Hernani, Salcedo and Oras.
Plan started its projects in Eastern Samar in February 2001. Rodel C. Bontuyan, program unit manager for the province, supervises 27 personnel, including technical officers for learning, health, water and environmental sanitation, and research program and development, and project officers for the different towns.
Minjel Naparate, a graduate of UP-SHS who is the ESPU technical officer for health, started out as project officer for one of the towns. Since his watch, two new barangay health centers had been constructed and another was renovated in some priority areas.
Planning for health
Deworming drugs, vaccines and vitamins have also been distributed and administered to children in the five towns. Some 150 kits have been distributed to barangay health workers after their refresher training.
Late last year, Naparate contacted his former teachers to design and implement a community health planning training for the barangay health committees in the towns that Plan covered. The contract was entered into by the ESPU and the Community Health Resource Foundation Inc. (CHRFI), a foundation based at the UP-SHS.
The first and second barangay trainings were conducted in February by Profs. Mae Florence D. Nierras, Evangeline C. Pasagui and Elvira L. Prejula. They conducted the lectures in the native Waray language, and even consulted old dictionaries to translate technical words and concepts into layman's terms.
"The greatest experience I have ever met (sic)," said Ronnie Borja, 55, of Barangay Caisawan, revealing his flash of insight right after a team-building activity.
Benefits
"If we had this type of planning input before, we would have had gone a long way with our projects in our barangay," said Romulo Elpedes, 54, a councilor from Barangay Cabay.
"Plan has assisted in the health of schoolchildren, including deworming through the local Rural Health Unit," said Chelyn Grace Azura, 33, a school nurse who participated in the first training.
"Plan has also donated books for our library, musical instruments for the school band, as well as sponsored several trainings for our teachers," she added.
Natividad Palce, Jude Michael's mother, said Plan had constructed school buildings and day-care centers, provided materials for the construction of toilets and water systems, and distributed bags and supplies to schoolchildren in their town.
Jude Michael and his playmate John Mark are not among the "sponsored" children in the province. They do not have direct Plan sponsors from abroad, but they enjoy such amenities as books and toys in the day-care centers.