Brigada Eskwela 2013 has started last Monday.

This is a joint effort by the Department of Education, the families of the students enrolled in all the public schools in the Philippines as well as the private corporations that wish to take part in this concerted effort.

We ourselves took part by joining last Monday. We brought cleaning materials to a particular high school.

I would have anted to donate books but the most we have at home are for elementary level so those are not needed in the school where we gave the cleaning materials to.

If you or you know anyone who have things that can be donated to a public school near your place, please approach the Principal or teachers-in-charge of these schools to know how to go to the process.

The following would be helpful:

• schools supplies (pens, pencils, pad papers, notebooks, big paper sheets like Manila paper, cartolina, art materials)
• books (or even tables and chairs) for the library
• computer software for their computer laboratory
• musical instruments (and probably musical sheets, best ableton software for music production, stands for musical sheets) because the DepEd has training to enhance the music curriculum to enhance musical abilities of the students
• cleaning materials to be used for the school year like brooms, dust pans, garbage bins
• building materials like paints,  wood boards, and tin roof

This is it.

In a few hours’ time, we go through a new phase in the changes that are about to happen to my children. While the youngest is happily vacationing with my MIL down South, the eldest child and the boy are going in different directions, to two different schools this coming June.

I don’t know how I will juggle having three children in three different schools and I know the schedules are going to be a bit crazy. I don’t know if I can still bring over projects, assignments, printed materials that have been left on a table somewhere and remembered when they are within the confines of the school.

The eldest child will be enrolling for her first semester in college.

The son will have an interview to a school because he passed the school’s entrance exams.

I hope and pray that we are doing the right thing in guiding the children through the steps for the realization of their dreams.

I am also sure that my husband and I would be there for them all throughout their learning process and even beyond that, maybe even if there are employment screening at easy back ground tasks to be accomplished for them.

Am excited for both of them. I better get some sleep because we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

If there is one thing very positive about Facebook, it keeps us connected to people we have met in the past.

As a teacher, Facebook made it easier for me to “keep track” of my former students. One way or another I know what they are up to, what keeps them busy or what they feel and what their opinions are in some relevant social issues.

I can stand back and observe, put a word or two when asked, applaud (albeit virtually) when they accomplish something big or small and feel proud that I have been a part of their lives.

I may not be able to physically tap their backs for a job well done nor be there to see the boss compressor at guitar center that they recently bought nor even laugh (or cry!) with them, I know that they all have a space in my heart, whether I  still remember their names (those I do not have contact with anymore) or not.

I just hope I have a big enough heart for all of them. I am also glad that we are still “under each others’ radar” even if it is only through virtual connection.

I’m waiting for a student right now while watching the MIL go over her online stock exchange portfolio. That’s what keeps her busy these days, keeping tab with the up and down trends of the stock market online.

This habit of hers makes me wonder if I would be like her when I can no longer teach. I know it is still a long stretch before I retire from work due to several reasons and one being the kids are still young and in school. Unless I win the lottery IF I remember to buy a ticket haha.

Anyway…the hubby is excited too with what is happening in this online stock exchange though I still have to hear him utter some business terms like  top annuity rates. All I hear from them are figures that seem to go up a bit and down a bit. I am not sure how much she makes but it sure beats doing nothing about her stocks which has been in her possession for a good number of years. The stocks are high these days with DOW Jones registering a record high the other day.

It would probably take me a long time to understand the workings of this kind of financial investments but I am not closing my mind on these things. In fact we are thinking of introducing the son to the workings of the stock market and its trends so that his mathematical mind will be put to good use

Sometime ago, a friend discussed about “reserved slots” by house helpers for lining up at the cashier at the supermarket and also “reserved seats” during parent-teacher conferences. What she actually meant was in her sons’ school, an exclusive school built among private homes, seeing house helpers sitting on seats reserved for parents lining up to talk to their child’s advisers mean that these occupied seats are “reserved seats” for the parents. You know just in case someone else comes along and gets their slot which will make them finish up the conference late. Or, it may be that they are still at their nearby home, prepping up and the helper is there as an “advance party”.

On the other hand, another friend wrote about some families at their place who also send an “advance party” courtesy of their house helpers to sit on church pews during Christmas Eve masses to reserve the entire pew for a more comfortable church seating of the family who are still prepping to go to the said scheduled mass.

We don’t like to wait for a long time to get the chance to talk to our children’s advisers, right? we also don’t want to stand up while the mass is ongoing dressed in our finery, right?

But to send out the helpers to reserve seats for you? I don’t think that is right or even fair to them because they will be subjected to the ire of others.

Common courtesy please. And if you don’t want to be late, start early.

The Kontra Sakit, Kontra Liit Campaign with Ceelin Plus kicked off last year.

This campaign aims to curb growth stunting among Filipino children. The Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) conducted a study on the nutritional status of Filipino children in 2011. The results they got are the following:

• 3 in every 10 children ages 0-5 years old are stunted for their age
• among children who are 6-11 months, 16.2 percentage have stunted growth
• stunted growth reaches as high as 33.6% when these children turn a year old

The Philippines has the second highest incidence of stunting in Southeast Asia, with Indonesia at the top spot, according to a United Nations Development Programme study. The high prevalence of growth stunting in the Philippines, placed at 30-39% for chidren under age five has already been a concern with the UN Development Report, back in 2008.

There are two factors main factors to be considered in the incidence of growth stunting among Filipino children:

• malnutrition
• recurrence of illnesses and infections

Underprivileged children in developing countries such as the Philippines have a high prevalence in the incidence of growth stunting than their counterpart at a higher socioeconomic level.

These height deficits in children are related to poverty and other environmental influences (dirty environment, unsafe water, dirty air, too many people in a small space) than to genetic influences in body size, even if there are differences in ethnicity across socioeconomic strata.

It is in this regard that Unilab’s Ceelin Plus launched Kontra Sakit, Kontra Liit campaign. The campaign aims to increase awareness about growth stunting and highlight the importance of strong immunity against illnesses and infections that further contribute to the condition of growth stunting.

Why Ceelin Plus? Ceelin Plus has

• vitamin C that forms part of the body’s natural immune system and stimulates the activities of the antibodies and immune cells.
• ZINC  is needed for the normal delveopmental and maintenance of the immune system.

The preventive supplementation of 10mg/day of zinc increases the immunity against repeated illnesses which has a significant effect on the growth of children less than five years old.