UP High School group receive TAYO awards

CEBU – A group of students from the University of the Philippines Cebu High School recently topped the Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (TAYO) award for their organization’s accomplishment on a recent project that made an impact in the community.

The South East Asian Service Leadership Network Entrepreneurs Club (Seal.Net) of UP Cebu High School was awarded for their project “Gubat Batok Bitok”, a drive against gastrointestinal worm infection for pupils of the Alaska Mambaling Elementary School (AMES) in barangay Mambaling, Cebu City.

The Gubat Batok Bitok project was the winning entry presented by Seal.Net former president Patrick Pata last December 13 in Manila.

The project was launched on June 28, 2007 after two weeks of preparation by the students and the members of Seal.Net United States. Members from US and UPHS went to AMES for a one-day activity of fun and information drives.

Students together with their mentors from Seal.Net US taught AMES pupils from Grades 1 to 6 how to prevent gastrointestinal worm infection, initiated games to entertain the kids and gave out freebies like t-shirts, paper fans, calendars and coloring books designed with informative graphics like the four steps to prevent worm infection.

These four steps are washing of hands, wearing of shoes and slippers, cutting of nails and intake of deworming pills. Pata said that what they did was a supplement to the initiative of the City Health Department that was also doing its deworming of kids from different barangays in the city at the time.

Pata said if these children will not learn how to prevent the infection after deworming they might still get infected and the cycle will go on. Being worm-free is very important because a child with worm infection cannot concentrate in class and is frequently absent due to stomach pains, Pata said.

Seal.Net chose barangay Mambaling because according to the National Health Institute survey last year Mambaling had the most number of children infected with gastrointestinal worms. Pata said nine out of 10 kids nurture parasites in their intestines.

On December of the same year, Seal.Net painted a mural on a wall near the school gate. Pata said it was to always remind them of the things they should do to keep themselves healthy and worm-free.

AMES has already installed a hand-washing area near the mural to encourage students to get into the habit of washing their hands. The city health has also assigned a school nurse to AMES to monitor the health of the students.

Pata reported that according to the recent survey this year, Mambaling has now only the sixth most worm-infected child populace, barangay Sawang Calero ranks first this year. Pata said that as they continue their project, they will go to other barangays and partner with the various Sangguniang Kabataan councils to extend their community service.

The Seal.Net of UPHS was founded last June 2007 when a group of 17 Seal.Net members from US came to Cebu and chose a school where they could partner with 17 students.

The Gubat Batok Bitok was their first project and the group is hoping to create more projects to give back to the community.

Pata said that if not for the taxes from the people, they might not be enjoying the quality education with free tuition fee for four years in UPHS.

“We might not be able to pay them back in cash, but we are trying to pay them through community service and our efforts in nation building,” Pata said. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/BRP (THE FREEMAN)