By: Erwin R Mabugat
Genelyn Apawan surprises her parents when she wakes up early at 6 a.m., picks her bag and rushes to school. That’s Wednesday, July 6.
At 15, Gen, as her friends fondly call her, is still at grade one of Cadiz East I Elementary School.
Ms. Leony Panes, her teacher, revealed Gen got sick and had become school returnee for several times. She only stands four feet tall.
Gen has suffered of ‘global developmental delay’. The medical term refers to a ‘child who is not reaching developmental landmarks at her usual age’. Lack of proper nutrition contributes to the growth problem.
This laborer’s daughter got to school late. Sometime, she failed to attend classes for their family’s ‘hapag’ or simple dining table was amputated with food to eat for breakfast. Nor had she P5 for her daily ‘baon’ or for tricycle fare. “Absent ko ah (I may be absent)”, said Gen.
She lives near the slaughterhouse in Barangay Tinampaan, which is a 5-minute tricycle travel and 30-minute walk to her school.
But that sad reality no longer haunted the young girl: Gen always gets up at 6 a.m., takes half an hour of bathing, sprints away to school and savors the nutritious breakfast.
She for all time wears a happy smile on her face. Every day!
Neneng and Tony, her proud parents, have perfectly noticed of that transformative adjustment on their youngest daughter. In fact, they became misty eyes as the two continued to narrate how Gen suddenly changed.
Now, Gen’s parents, a simple family of ambition, beseech that the positive effect will prolong as their daughter grows older and healthy. Neneng is a plain housewife while Tony works in the dried fishing venture.
What inspires this literally food-deprived kid to catch the early plum is the fact that her teacher advises her, together with other classmates, to go to school before time for the wonderfully good news: free breakfast, a healthy breakfast.
Heartened by the grim reality that the city’s schoolchildren have suffered of malnutrition for years, Mayor Patrick Escalante, a physician himself, has remarkably initiated the ‘Project P.A.T.’ or ‘Pagkaon Aton Tatapon’. It is the Mayor’s advocacy on proper education, nutrition and health among local schoolchildren.
The P.A.T. is the feeding program to combat malnutrition and increase academic performance of pupils.
The P.A.T. serves thrice a week nutritious meals for breakfast for children in the city’s 51 elementary schools.
Just like Gen, Elmark Castroverde, also a 1st grader of the same school, always wears the same happy smile on his face. He keeps coming to school on time and attentively listens to what his teacher discusses.
Mark, as energetic as he has been, always excites himself on every feeding day. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He lives at Purok Ponong Kho in Barangay Daga.
Neneng and Tony, and Elmark’s parents, have been among the many parents who have been thankful of Mayor Patrick Escalante for implementing the feeding program for schoolchildren.
This is relatively a pleasant indication that schools would no longer suffer a population decrease or the rate of annual drop-out.
According to Ms. Helen Caceres, principal of CEES I, her office sees a favorable improvement of the pupils’ attendance and academic performance in almost two weeks of feeding program. She added her pupils are getting healthier./*
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