ECCD allocates P6.6 Million for Antique
San Jose, Antique -- The Early Childhood Care and Development Program (ECCD) funded by the national Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) has released the amount of P6,614,123.10 to seven municipalities in the province, said Juliana O. Cepe, Provincial Planning and Development Coordinator during the meeting of the Provincial Council for the Protection of Children (PCPC) held Tuesday.
The recipient municipalities are Caluya, Libertad, Sebaste, Belison, Valderrama, Tibiao and Anini-y which also provided their counterpart to the program in the amount of P1,197,892.40 while the Provincial Government shared P1,480,000.00.
"Antique is the first province in the country to pilot the convergence of ECCD project after the issuance of joint memorandum circular from CWC and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) where services are converged to reach out to more children", said Cepe who is also designated ECCD Coordinator.
The convergence of ECCD services has covered more towns since other towns not included in the CWC funding were given support under the ECCD project funded by UNICEF through the Country Program for Children, reported Cepe.
Lazaro Petinglay, Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer, secretariat of the PCPC challenged the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officers to maximize the implementation of the program at the local level to ensure that it will leave an impact in changing the lives of children especially those in remote areas and in disadvantaged situation.
Petinglay also reported that out of the 590 barangays in the province 587 have day care centers with about 18,000 day care pupils. Most of the centers are having supplemental feeding program where funds were either locally generated through the day care parents and community associations or the government's food for school feeding program.
"All these efforts contribute to our vision of fulfilling the rights of children and eradicating poverty and hunger as stipulated in the Millennium Development Goals", said Petinglay. (PIA)