Elementary School Teachers for the Day

by: Farhana Paber

The Team Mauswagong Mirangan considers the children of the Barangay as one of its assets in attaining the pinnacle of success. Therefore, we need to nourish them with proper knowledge and enhance their skills and attitude in viewing health as a whole. Our group, together with OIC- Principal Mrs. Elvira Paniagua, and with the assistance of Board Member Dr. Eufemio “Vic” Javier, conducted a Medical Check up and Health teaching at Mirangan Elementary School Last April 26, 2012. This aims to assess the medical needs of the students and at the same time, ehhance their previous knowledge on proper hygiene and nutrition.

We were very excited to launch the activity that is why we really prepared for the said event. We divided ourselves for the health teaching. Peter Vitug and Jermae Rubares discussed about the importance of Proper Nutrition, Food Pyramid and the 3 major food groups. While they were discussing, I was amazed by how the children cooperated and raised their hands with enthusiasm with regards to the topic. The lecturers also prepared a game to enhance further their interaction. They grouped the students and asked them to classify the different food cutout pictures per food group. In the end, all of the participating groups emerged as winners. They were also evaluated through series of questions related to the topic, overall, I can say that the children indeed “absorbed” something from us after the lectures.

Next, Moritz Soliven and Neil Marcos discussed about good personal hygiene specifically on how to take a bath properly and proper toothbrushing. During the lectures, I was surprised that some of the children raised certain issues and concerns regarding hygiene. For example, most of them use calamansi, guava leaves and sugar cane to clean their teeth. Some share that toothpaste and toothbrush for them are a precious commodity and it should be used during important occasions. A kid also shared to me that sometimes, when they don’t have soap or shampoo, they use detergent bars as a substitute. I was startled by these revelations. So, our group cleared some of these issues and still stressed on the importance of proper hygiene. We also corrected some misinformation and shared some natural alternatives for shampoo and toothpaste (like Sugar Cane and Guava for toothbrush and Aloe Vera with Coco-milk for shampoo).

Shernalynne Tahir and I, on the other hand, discussed about proper hand washing. I was surprised that the students know its importance and yet they seem not to practice it mainly because, WATER is their problem. It was a challenge for us. Nevertheless, we demonstrated how to wash hands properly. We discussed the six steps of proper handwashing as prescribed by the Department of Health. And to put fun into the discussion, we introduced a song to the tune of Baby by Justin Bieber. The song was composed by Moritz and her friends from Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health batch 2015. Its aim is to inform the kids of the importance of hand washing and its proper steps as well. In the end, the kids enjoyed and even presented the steps to us in a creative dance.

Health Teachings? More Fun in Mirangan! Watch our first teaching stint at Mirangan Elementary School.

I believe that we ended the health teaching with a “BAM!” when we introduced BASURA MONSTER to them. Previously, during our first community exposure, we have learned that the people seem to have a problem in terms of environmental sanitation. That pushed us to teach them proper segregation and waste disposal in a story-telling activity. We adopted Christine Bersola’s The Basura Monster. The story brought the children’s imagination to its two main characters, Buboy and Anna (re-enacted by Jacqueline and Veronico, the selected students of Mirangan Elementary School), who continuously threw garbage anywhere. They have failed to notice that the pile of garbage was brought to life and became Basura Monster (played by Peter Vitug). The said monster feeds on garbage and has become a source of energy to him. In the end, the Basura Monster was defeated when the Mayor (played by Neil Marcos) told the children the importance of cleaning the environment and the proper waste segregation and disposal. Overall, the children enjoyed the story and gasped the importance of Environmental Sanitation.

Our creative take on Christine Bersola-Babao's Basura Monster.

Watching them learn, interact and finally showing some concerns gave us a euphoric satisfaction. We hope that through these activities, we can instill change to the community event in simple ways.

We are definitely hoping for more fun-filled health teaching with the kids, in God’s will. After all, these children are the roots towards a Mauswagong Mirangan.