A training for youth leaders of Tabuelan was conducted last November 17, 2020 at the Astrodome, Poblacion, Tabuelan, Cebu.
There were a total of 19 youth members from 13 youth organizations, namely: Kabatan-onan Kontra Duga at Terorismo (KKDAT), Students Supreme Government of Barangay Poblacion, Tau Gamma Phi (TGP), Pag-asa Youth Association of the Philippines – Tabuelan Chapter, KANDAKAP Youth, Youth for Christ (YFC), Poblacion Youth Association (PUYA), Tabuelan Youth Catholic Organization (TYCO), Olivo Youth Catholic Organization (OYCO), and the Samahang Kabataan (SK) Federation of Barangays Tigbawan, Tabunok, Villahermosa, and Olivo.
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.
The participants expressed that they play an important role in the prevention and control of COVID-19 by promoting hygiene especially handwashing among the youth sector. Problems in their barangay like poor garbage disposal, lack of toilets, lack of environmental sanitation need to be addressed by their barangays but each family needs to be more aware and responsible for their own cleanliness in order to prevent infection. The youth leaders committed to promote hygiene in their respective families and organizations where they belong.
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.
