City taps school kids as junior health advocates
CHILDREN in public elementary schools in Dagupan City will be tapped as Junior Health Advocates (JHA) who can help the City Health Office provide better health services to the city’s residents.
The program was ordered by the city government on June 28 under the auspices of the Manlingkor Ya Kalangweran (Young Public Servants), a youth leadership program headed by Dagupan Young Mayor Jalen Kody Miles Fernandez, a student at the Pangasinan Universal Institute.
Fernandez said JHA makes the children as active partners in the advocacy for good health and will be launched in all public elementary schools in the city.
The novel idea, launched at the West Central Elementary School with the theme “Kabataan Aktibo sa Pagsulong ng Kalusugan”, was broached by Mayor Belen Fernandez after she determined that when schoolchildren are sick, the parents are most likely sick themselves.
The new health advocacy directs the City Health Office led by Dr. Ophelia Rivera not only to give proper medical attention to the sick kids but also to attend to their parents in their homes who are ill given an advice from the schoolchildren.
The mayor said barangay health centers can be of better service if they are advised of the health conditions of residents from the children themselves.
“Through the JHA program, we would know every day if there are children and parents needing medical help,” Fernandez said.
Rivera mentored the kids about their role as junior health advocates. There will be one teacher and two students, in each classroom who will be appointed as active members of the program.
“Starting them young to be health conscious and to be our partners in the advocacy of good health, seeking behavior and healthy lifestyle. Selected elementary pupils will be trained to become junior health advocates,” Rivera said.
Fernandez said she will seek to provide a bigger budget for children’s health, since the city’s own new diagnostic center expected to be operational next year to provide free ultrasound, ECG and others.
The mayor said the JHA can support the UBO Patrol project of the city to check the the incidence of tuberculosis.
Several boxes of wash soaps, shampoo, alcohol, anti-dengue lotion, iodized salt, anti-bacterial cleaning formula from Procter and Gamble were distributed to children and teachers at West Central Elementary School to keep them healthy and to prevent goiter. (Eva Visperas)
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