SK Tiwi steps up programs on youth mental health and education

LEGAZPI CITY, Sept 23 (PIA) – Since the community lockdows and quarantine measures were implemented due to Corona Virus-19 (COVID19) pandemic, suicide and deppression rates among the youth are increasing. 

Well-known entities such as the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) point out that mental health is languishing and issued warnings about the possible effects of COVID-19 on depressions and suicidal behaviors.  

With this alarming concern, the Sangguniang Kabataan of the municipality of Tiwi initiated the localized mental health awareness year to focus on projects and activities that will promote mental health especially among the youth.

“According to a study, 9 out of 10 youth experience mental health problem so we have to give attention to this. That is why during our Linggo ng Kabataan celebration, Tiwi declared a localized mental health awareness year where we decided to focus our projects on mental health awareness,” Tiwi SK Federation President Jerahmeel Clerigo said.

Clerigo is the guest SK official at the Laging Handa Network Briefing hosted by Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar.

He noted that Tiwi is the only municipality in Albay that declared localized mental health awareness year in support and in response to the rising mental health concerns of the youth especially in this time of pandemic.

“We started with posting a webinar on Facebook where we invited a speaker to lecture on mental health. After the video, many contacted and consulted us,” Clerigo said.

Data collected from several studies on teen mental health during the pandemic shows spike in suicide and depression as young people are increasingly cut off from peers and caring adults. Many are also uncertain of their future while others spend more time at home, where they are most likely to have access to lethal weapons.

SK Kaagapay and Reading Program

SK officials in Tiwi also initiated the SK Kaagapay project where SK officials will identify elementary students in their neighborhood whom they can tutor in answering the modules sent by their schools.

“SK Kaagapay will start on October, with the opening of classes. We will train the SK officials prior to this,” Clerigo said.

SK Tiwi has likewise partnered with the LGU for the reading program in response to the study conducted where some elementary students still did not know how to read.

“This is a tutorial with two components: one is school-based where teachers will hold extra sessions for students who are struggling and second is the community-based. That’s where our SK officials will come in. There will be a special session in the barangay to tutor the students,” he said.

Proposal for Tiwi water system

With Department of Agriculture Secretary William Dar as the guest government official at the Network Briefing, Clerigo appealed for the approval of the proposal for Tiwi water system under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP).

In response, Dar assured support and approval of the said proposal.

“We assure you that we will fund that, we are just finalizing the negotiations now for the extension of the PRDP with an additional budget of $280 million. Once that’s done within one month, we can again process requests for PRDP,” Dar said.

Laging Handa Network Briefing is a partnership program of the Philippine Information Agency and Radyo Pilipinas that brings Local Government Units (LGUs) and Local Management Entities (LMEs) together with relevant national government agencies and their officials.

It is launched by the PCOO as a radio oriented digitally-driven platform, with the objectives of delivering – and drawing from each other – necessary information that needs to be relayed to the people and to the concerned government agency and officials. (SAA-PIA5/Albay)

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