Education Philippines Project #33378

Send 200 Filipino kids to better daycare centers

by Haligi ng Bata, Inc.

Project Report | Jun 21, 2021
COVID-19: Hygiene Kits & Health Center Support

By HBI | Operations Team

A Pitpitac daycare student with his hygiene kit

The Philippines continues to endure the second wave of COVID-19 infections, with the period of April 2021 to May 2021 proving to be the most challenging. During this period, average daily cases ballooned to 10,000 from 1,000 in March 2021 and as a result, the country imposed strict lockdown measures in Metro Manila and nearby provinces that posted the highest spikes in infections. Coincidentally, the first stringent COVID lockdown measures were implemented in the same months during 2020, earning the Philippines the tag of having one of the longest, strictest COVID-19 lockdowns in the world.

When the lockdown measures were lifted in the first week of June 2021, the HBI Team was able to travel to the La Union Province to get an update on the status of the supported daycare centers and their students, while distributing needed hygiene and health supplies to children and community health centers.

Hygiene Kits and Vitamin A Supplementation for Daycare Students

A total of 150 children from mountain communities of Sasaba, Tubaday, Bay-O, Tico, Sapdaan, Basig, and Pitpitac were provided with hygiene kits containing toothbrushes, toothpastes, soaps, towels, and hand sanitizers and isopropyl alcohol. The distribution of the support that you made possible was facilitated by the partner daycare teachers and the assigned social worker from the municipal social welfare and development office.

The children and their families were very happy to receive this package of support since the parents' meager incomes are all devoted to purchasing the family's food supplies. The distributions were done either in the daycare centers or in the community's health center and were closely coordinated with concerned local officials. HBI also made sure to follow all health and time conditions and protocols during the distribution.

Through the in-kind donation of Vitamin Angels Philippines which came to know of HBI through the GlobalGiving platform, 1,750 children in the La Union Province between the ages of 6 months to 59 months were provided with Vitamin A supplementation to ensure their good health amidst the pandemic. The students of the daycare centers were the first to receive these vitamins with their parents and daycare teachers assisting the community health workers in administering them.

Support for Community Health Centers

Daycare teachers are currently volunteering in the community health centers since public daycare centers and schools in the Philippines are still closed due to the pandemic. The fight against COVID highlighted the crucial role that community health centers play in public health as they continue to find ways to provide basic health services to community members on top of monitoring possible COVID-19 cases. In mountain regions being reached by the Daycare Improvement Project, community health centers are more important as the nearest hospitals are usually located in the provincial capitol approximately two to three hours away by private transportation.

With this said, we’re happy to report that your donation also enabled the provision of support to two of the most far-flung community health centers in Santol, La Union: the Tubaday and Sasaba Community Health Centers. The support provided include disinfecting kits and solutions to be placed in all entrance and exit ways; personal protective equipment such as face shields, face masks, and gloves; cotton swabs, bandages, isopropyl alcohol, medicines for flu and colds, and vitamin C tablets to be dispensed to children and health center clients in need.

Future Plans

Apart from continuing the provision of health and hygiene needs of the daycare center students, the project is also going to provide additional support to the La Union community health centers as they prepare to register and administer COVID-19 vaccines to those already eligible to receive them. Apart from inconsistent and scarce vaccine supplies, a problem being encountered is vaccination hesitation among eligible community members. HBI is currently working with the municipal health offices in Santol, Luna, and Sudipen, La Union to see how the project can help.

Our Biggest Thanks

On behalf of the daycare children, daycare teachers, and health care workers, we at HBI would like to fervently thank our donors for their support to this simple project. Your donations matter to the children and daycare centers now more than ever as they continue to face the many uncertainties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. We wish to see you or hear from you in our next program updates but for now, we hope that you and your nearest-and-dearest are safe and well wherever you are in the world.

Bay-O Children with their hygiene kits

Tubaday Daycare Children with their hygiene kits

Mountain daycare centers were hard to reach

Health Center Support for Sasaba Health Center

Health Center Support for Tubaday Health Center

Vitamin A supplementation in Santol, La Union

Vitamin A supplementation for children 6-59 months

A mom bringing in her son for Vitamin A supplement

A tireless health care worker giving Vit. A

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Feb 22, 2021
Daycare Project: COVID-19 & Relief Support

By HBI | HBI Operations Team

Typhoon-affected children in Bagong Silangan

COVID-19 and the Philippines: A Year Later and Schools Are Still Closed

More than a year since the Philippines logged its first confirmed COVID-19 case, the effects of the pandemic continue to be felt by Filipinos from all walks of life. Based on recent data, there are now 561,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the country, with testing and vaccination programs remaining to be in need of major fine-tuning and proper implementation.

Without a doubt, one of the many societal pillars that have been shaken by the pandemic is the education sector. In a country that has faced more than its fair share of man-made and natural challenges over the years, the COVID-19 pandemic is the first to have a profound impact on the Philippines’ education system. Since March 2020, COVID-19 has affected the lives of the country’s 27.2 million students, with classes suddenly halted and with children below 15 years old not allowed to leave their homes due to stringent lockdowns. Schools - including the public daycare centers our project helps and supports - have been closed and traditional face-to-face classes are suspended to curb the spread of the virus and ensure the health and safety of students and teachers.

Calamity Support for Affected Children in Metro Manila

With public daycare facilities still closed, a portion of the donations for the Daycare Improvement Project had been used to provide immediate relief support for children and families in Metro Manila affected by the spate of typhoons that hit the country in November 2020. 60 affected children from flood-prone areas of Bagong Silangan and Payatas in Quezon City, and the Tanza Communities in the urban fishing city of Navotas received hygiene kits, food supplies consist of rice, noodles, canned goods, and chocolate drinks, medicines and multivitamins, blankets, and sleeping mats.These support were provided on November 2020 and December 2020, much to the gratitude of the children and their parents - most of whom have lost their jobs because of the pandemic and its corresponding lockdowns.

Hygiene and Health Kits for the Daycare Learners and their Families

Through your donations, the HBI Team has already purchased family hygiene and health kits for the daycare learners and their families. However, travel and assembly restrictions imposed to fight the spread of COVID-19 and its newest strain (which was confirmed in one of the provinces near La Union) continue to make deliveries in the La Union communities tricky and costly. HBI plans to provide these individual packages of support at the soonest possible time once we have secured all necessary health permits needed to enter the project areas.

Apart from this, HBI is also keeping in touch with the public daycare centers to identify their most pressing needs once face-to-face classes resume. While we cannot provide an exact timeline for the reopening of schools in the Philippines, HBI is assuming that face-to-face learning will resume sometime next school year (June 2021 to March 2022).

Thank you to all our donors

We at HBI would like to fervently thank all the donors of the Daycare Improvement Project for supporting this cause, pandemic or no pandemic. As we try to continue our programs under "the new normal" ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic, we will continue to strive in safely resuming our work and projects on the field for the benefit of the daycare children. We apologize for delays in our reports and in responding to emails and questions, rest be assured that we will work extra hard to provide all these health and hygiene support to La Union children and community health centers as soon as possible.

Typhoon Ulysses' Effects in the Philippines

Repacking of relief goods for affected families

Distribution of relief goods in Navotas

Relief goods through GlobalGiving donations

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Oct 23, 2020
Daycare Improvement Project: COVID-19 Support Program

By HBI | Operations Team

A health worker with Vitamin Angels supplies

COVID-19 in the Philippines: Far From Over

10 months into 2020, the Philippines continues to try to endure the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Based on the latest figures, there are now approximately 366,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country, with the average daily confirmed cases around 2,000 to 3,000. It is only very recently when the country has posted less than 2,000 cases per day, with many hoping that the downward trend continues.

Even with this positive development though, health experts still believe that there is still a big possibility that official COVID-19 numbers will hit 500,000 before 2020 ends. Testing facilities are still far from optimized especially with the recent news that the Philippine Red Cross had ceased their free COVID-19 testing due to the state health insurer's Php 930 Million debt to the Philippine Red Cross.

COVID-19 in the Philippines and School and Daycare Classes

COVID-19 has also affected the Philippine education sector, with the opening of school classes moved from the usual June schedule to October 5, 2020. Apart from the delay in class opening, the country has shifted to a blended mode of learning after the government prohibited face-to-face classroom sessions to stop the spread of the virus. Now, all students are essentially distance learners who use online and modular course work in continuing their schooling and education at home.

Public Daycare Centers in the country have all been closed to traditional learning, with learners staying at home and delaying their early childhood schooling. According to the teachers of our project's daycare centers, they are urging parents to teach their children how to read, write, and count by borrowing some of the books, tooks, and educational materials provided earlier by the Daycare Improvement Project and its donors. For now, the daycare teachers are pitching in to help their respective community's public health center which continue to provide medical and health support to all community residents regardless if they are positive or negative for COVID-19.

Public Community Health Center Support Programs made possible by the Daycare Improvement Project

With daycare learners safe in their homes, the Daycare Improvement Project has shifted its support to help indigent community health centers cope with the demands not only of fighting a pandemic but also of their daily duties to provide health services to the communities' residents. Through the project's exposure in the GlobalGiving Platform, HBI received donations from Vitamin Angels in the form of Vitamin A Supplements for children ages 6 months to 59 months. A total of 14 indigent community health centers, including the health centers serving the communities where our daycare centers are located, have received this support for approximately 1,200 children.

Through this support for Vitamin A supplementation, these children will avoid preventable childhood blindness, diarrhea, and measles; and would have stronger immune systems needed to resist infections. Proper Vitamin A supplementation also reduces anemia and decreases risk of children dying by 24%.

Apart from Vitamin A supplementation support, the Daycare Improvement Project has begun distributing health and medical items to indigent community health centers. Items provided include face masks, face shields, disinfecting kits, medicines for flu, fever, and colds, vitamin C syrups and capsules, and other consumable health materials such as gloves, bandages, and cotton buds among others.

Future Programs: Hygiene and Health Kits for the Daycare Learners and their Families

Through your donations, the HBI Team has already purchased family hygiene and health kits for the daycare learners and their families. However, travel and assembly restrictions imposed to fight the spread of COVID-19 continue to make deliveries in the La Union communities tricky and costly. HBI plans to provide these individual packages of support at the soonest possible time once we have secured all necessary health permits needed to enter the project areas.

Thank you to all our donors

The HBI Team distributing Vitamin A supplements

Vitamin A supplements from Vitamin Angels

Community Health Center COVID-19 Support Program

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