Zambo Sur pupils become “hygiene educators” at home

By Imee Alonzo

ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR, Nov. 15 - -To many parents’ surprise, schoolchildren in New Village Elementary School in Zamboanga del Sur have transformed to become “hygiene educators” at home.

This was disclosed by PTCA President Raul Ponce who gave his testimony about the impact of Essential Health Care Program (EHCP) during the Global Hand washing Day held recently at the Village school.

Ponce said when the EHCP was fully implemented in their school over a year ago, and they noticed schoolchildren have been reminding their parents and siblings at home to brush their teeth and wash their hands daily after meal and before sleeping.

“This is the impact of EHCP and our children have been consistently reminding us parents to brush our teeth and wash our hands every night to prevent diseases,” Ponce said.

Addressing hundreds of guests and participants in the first ever global handwashing day event in Zamboanga del Sur, Ponce also said that the PTCA noticed that absenteeism was significantly reduced in the school. EHCP promotes three interventions to prevent child diseases. These daily tooth brushing, daily hand washing with soap and twice a year deworming.

This testimony was also shared by school head Eleadora Macala that aside from less absenteeism, teachers no longer remind their pupils to brush their teeth because children are the ones announcing in class when “it’s tooth brushing time!”

“We also noticed that children are more active and participative in class since we started EHCP in our school,” Macala said.

New Village Elementary School is one of the EHCP model schools in Zamboanga del Sur where UNICEF provided the kick start EHCP materials that includes toothbrush, bottled toothpaste and soap. The Fit for School, a partner organization of DepED provided the capacity building of the school nurse and teachers on how the program will be implemented and sustained.  (JPA/IA, DepEd/PIA9)