A training for youth leaders of Bogo City as conducted last November 6, 2020 at the audio-visual room, Bogo City Hall.
There were 14 youth participants coming from four organizations, namely, Fourth Club Federation, Parish Youth Coordinating Council (PYCC), Pre-professional Youth Acting Program (PPYAP), and Samahang Kabataan of Barangay Bungtod.
The Visayas Primary Healthcare Services, Inc. organized the training as part of the project supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on COVID-19 response.
The youth play an essential role together with the BHERTs, barangay health workers, barangay nutrition scholars and other sectors in community-based COVID-19 response. Hygiene care and hygiene promotion is very important in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic so that increased awareness of the youth leaders on it can pave way for more active involvement of the youth sector in community-based COVID-19 response in their communities.
The training aimed to present to the participants the importance of hygiene and hygiene promotion during the COVID-19 pandemic, explain the significance of personal, home, food, respiratory, laundry, menstrual, and oral hygiene, introduce about sanitation, its definition and importance, discuss how to make water safe to drink by disinfection with chlorine and boiling, discuss about hygiene promotion and the components of hygiene promotion.
After the lecture, there was a workshop where the participants answered the following questions, namely, (a) What do you think you can do to maintain hygiene in your home? (b) Do you see any problems with hygiene in your community? (c) Why do you think there are such problems? and (d) What do you think can be done to address these problems?
The participants shared their answers to the workshop. They also shared about their experiences regarding practicing the health protocols.
After the training was the distribution of BIDA hygiene kits to the youth participants in Bogo City. BIDA stands for B – Bawal walang mask, I – I-sanitize ang mga kamay, iwas-hawak sa mga bagay, D – Dumitansya ng isang metro and A – Alamin ang totoong impormasyon, a campaign by the DOH to promote the active role of individuals in the fight against COVID-19
The participants said that in order to be healthy, it is important to practice cleanliness and personal hygiene. To prevent illnesses such as diarrhea, they should have proper waste disposal. And it is important that everybody in the community cooperates to promote environmental sanitation in all places. They said that even if they are not allowed to go out, they can promote cleanliness through social media. Being aware of how to maintain hygiene is very important, to practice it is much more important.
The participants said that there is a need to reach out to more youth organizations in order to promote about hygiene, through trainings for their youth leaders and information dissemination through the social media, or public gatherings.
