5 Antique towns prioritized for UNICEF support
San Jose, Antique -- The Provincial Child Friendly Movement Team selected 5 municipalities in the province to be supported by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) under the Sixth Country Program for Children (CPC 6). These are the towns of San Jose, Sibalom, Hamtic, Culasi and San Remigio.
Dr. Marisa Ricardo, UNICEF's Focal Officer for Antique said that to achieve greater results on the reduction of disparities and uplift the situation of children, CPC 6 employs strategies of convergence of services to areas where more children are affected while continuing assistance to other communities with child friendly initiatives. "We are targeting all children in the province but we need to focus our interventions to look at the big impact on disparity reduction for the coming years", Ricardo said.
The following are the basis in the selection of municipalities with big disparities. For Education, those towns with low achievement and completion rates and high drop out rate were given priority while health indicators cover maternal deaths, under five mortality rate and prevalence of malnutrition.
High number of child abuse cases and children at risk were considered under child protection, while early child education gave more attention to towns without day care centers or without early child care and development services. Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection is also one of the factors in selecting the municipalities.
It can be noted that selected municipalities have big population and have urban areas like San Jose, Sibalom, Culasi and Hamtic in which children were exposed to high risk conditions. The town of San Remigio being an upland area was identified to have children at risk in armed conflict. These towns are in the process of selecting their disparity barangays.
Juliana O. Cepe, Asst. Provincial Planning and Development Coordinator said that the province will strive to reduce disparity indicators before the end of CPC 6 in 2009 by focusing its services to these areas and sustaining the gains and best practices in other towns. "Antique is still committed to its vision that all children should live in a child friendly environment where their rights are protected and upheld", she said.
UNICEF support in the province is a big help in alleviating the consequences of poverty like malnutrition, out of school children, child labor, vulnerability to high risk conditions like pornography and armed conflict among others in which the local government units, government agencies and private sector are working hand in hand to achieve the goal of a child friendly Antique.
The programs are also in line with the UNs Millennium Development Goals wherein Philippines is a signatory to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, provide gender equality and combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
(PIA)