The laws that protect our children

CEBU, Philippines - What can you do to support ECCD in your barangay?

According to the ECCD Act, the role of families and communities are:

• Contribute monthly to help maintain and operate day care centers. If your child does not attend a public day care center, you can talk to the day care worker and ask them what they need. More often than not, supplies of healthy food and learning materials are greatly needed. If you have a bigger budget, perhaps you can talk to your barangay captain about augmenting your barangay day care worker’s salary.

•Volunteer time and services. Many times the barangay day care worker is tasked with teaching 30 young children. They would appreciate help from a caring member of the community even once a week! You can also share your expertise as a parent or share what you know about healthy eating, cooking, and other skills that would benefit parents of young children.

• Mobilize and generate resources in coordination with the local ECCD coordinating committees. If you know the local leaders, educate them on the value of ECCD and persuade them to allocate more funds to ECCD programs. The law does not specify how much funding to allocate so if leaders do not feel ECCD is important, they will allocate very little money towards it. If you have access to a good network of caring, supportive people, use your skills to raise funds for your barangay day care center. If you have a business in the area, think about supporting the day care center programs as part of your social responsibility program.

• Participate in the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of ECCD programs in your community. Every barangay has a Barangay ECCD Committee that requires a representative from parent groups, non-government organizations, or private organizations. You can participate as a member of the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children, or request information from them on their programs and projects.

Information about Early Childhood Care and Development is an advocacy of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. through the Dolores Aboitiz Children’s Fund. For comments and suggestions, email [email protected]. Share with us what you want to know about.

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The FREEMAN and the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. are doing weekly features on Early Childhood Care and Development to emphasize the importance of Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) and to increase public support for ECCD.