5 THRUST PROGRAMS
BATANG PINOY NUTRITION PROGRAM
The first thrust program of the society is to participate in health promotion through the nationwide implementation of the Batang Pinoy Nutrition Program. This is comprised of the following projects:
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1. Hanapin si IDA (Iron Deficiency Anemia)
2. Yakap Nutrisyon
3. Batang Pinoy: Ngipin Alagaan
4. Breastfeeding Advocacy
5. Immunization and TB Identification Drive
6. Hygiene and Sanitation Education
VISION SCREENING
The thrust program of Vision Screening is in collaboration with the Philippine Society of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. This aims to assess school children aged 5-7 years for blurring of vision that is vital to formal learning. Students who fail in the screening are referred to Pediatric Ophthalmology service for further evaluation. CPSP provides assistance in obtaining corrective glasses as necessary. Partnership with the local government unit is also established to sustain this project.
LUSOG-ISIP PROJECT
The Community Pediatrics Society of the Philippines, in partnership with Medichem, a company division of UNILAB, and supported by our local psychiatrists, created a program for adolescent students in the junior high school aptly titled, LUSOG ISIP project in August 2016.
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The thrust program aims to:​
1) promote mental health to increase people's awareness of the issue of depression and suicide in adolescents, which is pervasive in schools;
2) prompt identification, treatment and management of depression; and
3) prevent the occurrence and recurrence of depression (through early intervention and management).
In collaboration with our Psychiatrist partners, a screening tool in a form of survey questionnaire (in Filipino) is devised. Evaluation is based on the questionnaire using the DSM-V criteria for Major Depressive Disorder for children/adolescents.
BULILIT (Child) Health Training Program
KIDS EMPOWERMENT: An Important Health Tool in the Community
By Benito Atienza, MD, FPPS
Founder/President, Child BHW Foundation, Inc.
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Historical Background
The Fe del Mundo Medical Center Foundation Philippines started to provide knowledge and skills to children in the community setting through community involvement. The Children's Medical Center Philippines (CMCP) started its community outreach program in Mexico, Pampanga in 1979 and later in San Ildefonso, Bulacan, training Mother Health Workers. In 1989, the third community satellite was established in Liliw, Laguna, this time, a child-to-child program for children was conceptualized, headed by Dra. Pagaduan and some first-year residents of CMCP. Thus, from a Mother Health Worker Program, training school children who have the enthusiasm to learn about health, was born.​
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Bulilit Health Worker Training was transferred to Batangas through Dr. Benito P. Atienza in 1996, together with Dr. Glenda Marquino and Dr. Marietta Areta when San Jose, Batangas had a typhoid outbreak hitting the headlines of the newspaper, including the CNN. Mostly affected were elementary schools but with the help from the NGOs and the government, there was no mortality, and the outbreak was controlled. A school-based project was started in cooperation with the Lipa Medical Society, CMCP and Department of Education, Culture, and sports.
This program became a foundation and was officially registered at the Security and Exchange Commission on September 21,1999. Enthusiasm and encouragement have spread far and wide to more elementary schools.
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Main Objectives:
1. to organize a well-represented group of students and teachers to be trained to promote health awareness, environment sanitation and conservation,
2. to provide a cost effective and innovative preventive health programs that will raise the standard of health education among the elementary and high school students and its respective communities, and
3. to establish linkages with government and non-government organizations together with local community associations.
LUNTIANG LARUAN
Among the many rights of a child, play is one need that is remarkably restructured by the last decade with the unprecedented impact of gadget use. Considering the pandemic restriction as an aggravating factor, children of this generation have limited connotations of what play is all about. The negative consequences of secluded online gaming or sedentary play is well established in the physical and mental health dimensions like addiction, aggressive or defiant behavior, isolation from society, anxiety, and sleeplessness. The lack of opportunity for outdoor play posts further risks of missing out on the benefits of the natural environment across all developmental domains. In spite of the risk perceptions of outdoor play, there is no better way for a child to experience the real world than to be outside through play.
The Luntiang Laruan Thrust Program aims to promote outdoor play as a means to enhance age-appropriate developmental milestones of our children in the community and encourage active, experiential learning through the natural environment. First in the province of Rizal, and eventually, nationwide, CPSP adapts an agreed space within a public park or a private land for a period of 2 years. Free outdoor play activities designed to match a child’s developmental stage and abilities are held on a scheduled basis, with strict compliance to the IATF protocol for safety measures. CPSP members provide pre-and post-play questionnaires to measure the effectiveness of outdoor play experience. Greenhouse exposure is provided to inspire children to plant and care for nature. The local community is empowered for its upkeeping. Story-telling, drawing, and pottery sessions may be held as well as health forum for families. The Luntiang Laruan expects less gadget time and more outdoor play from its children visitors. With a living protocol backed up by research and strong partnerships among stakeholders this project will be replicated in other provinces in the country through the 12 CPSP chapters.
Our first Luntiang Laruan is the Magdalena Steps-San Diego Reserve, an indigenous park in Sitio Bulo-Bulo, Barangay Quisao, Pililia, Rizal, through the generosity of Engineer Raul and Mrs. Edna Yumul.
