SOME 200 children who are ‘Yolanda’ survivors and are staying in communities in Navotas City were treated over the weekend with food, fun and a mobile play space which functions both as a bag and a chair.
The kids, few of them were adopted by the local governments from Bulacan and Cavite, had obviously enjoyed the treat provided by the Unilab Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is “to build a healthier Philippines,” in Dagat-dagatan area where they played and danced along with their equally-delighted parents.
‘Mang Tino,’ 49, a Palo, Leyte resident, brought with him his two kids – six and eight years old – who seemed to have forgotten the trauma they experienced late last year as they laughed and jumped while they played and danced with the organizers along with the foundation executive director, Ms. Rhodora Palomar-Fresnedi.
“Malaking tulong ang naidudulot sa amin ng mga ganitong programa dahil kahit papaano nababawasan ang aming paghihirap at kalungkutan dahil sa nangyari sa amin sa Leyte,’ he says as he narrates how his three family members including his wife perished during the tragedy.
Beat reporters were invited to witness how the children, the ‘Yolanda’ survivors, responded with happiness as they’re treated with foods and the colorful mobile play space which was designed to function both as a bag and a chair.
As a chair, it allows the child to claim his sacred space to play. Especially in evacuation centers and tent cities where children are displaced, the mobile play space provides a sense of security and ownership. As a bag, it allows a child to bring his own play space anywhere he or she goes, says Ms. Palomar-Fresnedi.
Working hand-in-hand with the play space was the curriculum which is composed of four play modules that include activities and lecture that would provide the young survivors an avenue to express themselves through play, she says further.
Being part of the foundation’s Play It Forward program, the executive director says that the mobile play spaces were pilot tested for the 200 children which would later be evaluated to determine its effectiveness before they scale up to reach even more children in need of therapeutic play.
She says the program addresses the urgent need for therapeutic play intervention for children who have experienced a traumatic experience like the young survivors of ‘Yolanda.’
Meanwhile, Mayor John Rey Tiangco, who lauded the Unilab’s effort to extend health services to the under-privileged people especially those struck by tragedies, says that the local government has been continuously providing all forms of assistance to the towns of Lawaan and Giporlos in Eastern Samar which they adopted as part of the government’s ‘Adopt-a-Town’ Program.
The Tiangco administration has been grateful to the city residents for sharing their blessings when they donated relief goods to the affected families in the Visayas region aside from the services the Navotas team that was sent there where it rendered relief operations and medical mission.
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