Dagupan, most Child-Friendly City in region
AFTER being chosen as the “Most Friendly City” under the independent component city category in the region, the City of Dagupan has been nominated for the 2014 Presidential Awards for the Most Child-Friendly Cities.
Mayor Belen T. Fernandez, bared this good news to officials and employees during the regular Monday flag-raising ceremony November 10 at the Dagupan City plaza.
Fernandez expressed jubilation over this development but assured the city that with or without the Presidential award, her administration will continue to push for programs and activities that will benefit young Dagupenos especially the less privileged children.
The regional evaluation committee cited the various programs and projects that the Dagupan city government has initiated for children since Fernandez took over the helm of the city government on July 1, 2013.
Dagupan is the only Local Government Unit (LGU) in Region 1 and perhaps in the whole country that organizes Children’s Congress annually for the last four years. It just hosted a Robotics Fair, in addition to the regular science fairs being held in the city from time to time.
Under the Fernandez’ administration, all day care centers have been upgraded to meet the standard of accreditation set by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
The supplementary feeding program in the city was launched for malnourished kids in school in coordination with the Department of Education, non-government organization, Kabisig at Kalahi, amd multi-national corporations such as Unilever, Mead and Johnsons and CSI Group of Companies.
The city government has agreed to partner with DepEd to build a modern library hub to encourage better reading habits for pupils and students and organized a pool of retired teachers to conduct read-along and story-telling sessions with young kids in day care centers.
“It’s easy to implement programs for the betterment of our children because we do it from the heart with or without the benefit of an award,” Fernandez said.
She acknowledged the initiatives taken by the department heads, particularly the City Social Welfare and Development Office under the leadership of Leah Aquino, for their good performance and hard work that led to the recognition. (LVM)
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