DAGUPAN CITY, Aug. 12 (PNA) — Plans are afoot for the holding of the first-ever Children’s Health Summit here on a date still to be determined by the city government and its partners, the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Health (DOH).
This was discussed by Mayor Belen T. Fernandez when she met Assistant Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Lourdes D. Servito and DOH Region 1 representative Loida C. Tantiado along with Dr. Sheila C. Sabado of the City Health Office and City Social Welfare and Development officer-in-charge Leah T. Aquino.
Fernandez stressed her concerns in protecting the children from non-communicable lifestyle-related diseases that usually attack the lungs, liver, heart and kidney of children due to the kind of food that they take daily while in school or even at home.
“The proposed summit seeks to educate our children and create awareness among parents on the importance of giving their children the proper nutrition, as well as the foods that they should eat and the foods that they should avoid while in school to protect them from getting sick or getting poisoned,” said Fernandez.
The Children’s Health Summit will also focus on teaching the children to be always conscious in observing proper hygiene and to be fully aware of the ill-effects of too much exposure to modern gadgets.
The city has already taken an initial step on proper hygiene with its “Paligo sa Barangay” that teaches children to give utmost importance to personal hygiene.
The Children’s Health Summit will involve school children from grades 1 to high school.
“Our teens will also be properly oriented on teenage sexuality for them to be able to understand the changes and developments that take place in their body when they reach the age of puberty,” said Fernandez.
The city government will also tap the assistance of the Philippine Medical Society–Pangasinan Chapter and the Philippine Pediatrics Society–Pangasinan Chapter, aside from the DOH. (PNA)