Dagupan pupils empowered to help address health concerns

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1040225
• Wednesday, July 4, 2018

By Ahikam Pasion and Hilda Austria (PNA)

DAGUPAN CITY – Elementary pupils here can now assist the local government unit in addressing the health concerns of their classmates with the launching of the Junior Health Advocates (JHA) Program.

City health officer Dr. Ophelia Rivera, in an interview Tuesday, said the program, initiated by Mayor Belen Fernandez, aims to spread health awareness among grade schoolers and to monitor sick pupils whose bad health affects their studies.

She said each class section will have two Junior Health Advocates (one boy and one girl), who will assess who among their classmates have illness and will report to the teacher, who, in turn, will relay the information to the City Health Office (CHO).

The JHAs will be chosen by their classroom adviser.

“Hindi mabigat on the part of the pupils, kasi tatanungin lang naman nila sa klase kung sino ang may sakit (It is not burdensome on the part of the pupils as they will just ask the whole class who among them is sick),” Rivera said.

She said that this program will help the CHO deliver faster response and medication to sick pupils.

In an interview last week with Mayor Fernandez, she said that children have the most potential to monitor health issues in the schools, as they observe their companions firsthand.

“At the end of the day, the children are still the front liners when it comes to health of the youth. In this program (JHA), we will be able to monitor everyday if a child needs assistance from the CHO,” she said.

Fernandez added, “Every time I go to the schools to monitor, I always meet sickly children. The CHO is not able to monitor each individual in the city especially the kids, which is why we have to come up with this program.”

The JHA program was introduced at North Central Elementary School on Tuesday, while it was first launched in West Central Elementary School last June 28, followed by Lucao Elementary School and Sabangan Elementary School.

Iodized salt, sanitizers and other hygienic agents were distributed to school children and teachers to help them in their campaign to maintain cleanliness and health in schools.

“We conducted information dissemination, at the same time an orientation to our new health advocates during the launching in respective schools,” Rivera said.

She added that the mayor wants every public school in the city to have its own JHA program.