Birth Certificate Project Continued at Barangay Mangas II

AWH attended a monthly LCPC (Local Council for Protection of Children) meeting on 4/13 and learned that more than half of the birth certificates for the residents of  Gulod, barangay Mangas II, Alfonso had not been issued yet. After the meeting, we asked Tess of municipal Civil Registry Office (CRO) the reasons. She explained that many had discrepancies such as misspelling of the names, wrong birth dates, etc. We retrieved 19 negative certificate of birth (document of not having birth certificate) which had been stuck in the process.
Later date we visited Mangas II and collected baptismal certificates for those 19 residents, then proceeded to CRO and checked one by one what the discrepancies are.
Some needed to correct information on baptismal, some needed to change the negative certificates which we had to pay the fees again. Some required voter’s certificates from the election office preceded by certificates of indigent issued by DSWD.
For example, Henry the recovered boy from sickness has no father (deceased). Since his family has no ID of Henry’s father (Tejero), he has to succeed mother’s last name (Mejos) as his parents were not married officially. So we paid to issue a new negative certificate with the corrections. So his name will be Henry Mejos from now on instead of Henry Tejero. It affected entire his family including his sisters and a child of one of his sisters.
Since Gladis who is one of the resident there and volunteers to handle this project ran out of transportation money, we have provided her enough fund to follow up on this issue including her husband’s papers which need to be forwarded from Samar by LBC.

In the meantime, Dindo, the electronic technician in Alfonso, wanted to volunteer by seeing our activities posted on my Facebook and helped our project in Mangas II. We picked up trash in the area with children and he spent his own money to buy snacks for the kids at his own will.

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Alfonso Women’s Month Celebration

March 24, 2015

The LCPC (Local Council of Protection of Children (, Women & Eldery)) of Alfonso held an event for national women’s month, attended by the Cavite provincial councilor, the municipal mayor, vice mayor, municipal councilors and some male barangay captains in lady’s costume.
AWH staff, DSWD Alfonso, a pastor and municipal health officer also attended as members of the LCPC.
It was confirmed that women’s position in the society must be raised and women shall be more empowered in the current men dominated lifestyle in the Philippines.DSCF6200 (Medium) DSCF6201 (Medium) DSCF6202 (Medium) DSCF6204 (Medium) DSCF6206 (Medium) DSCF6208 (Medium) DSCF6211 (Medium) DSCF6213 (Medium) DSCF6216 (Medium) DSCF6221 (Medium)

Local Council for The Protection of Children (LCPC)

The members of LCPC consist of councilors from the municipality of Alfonso, Cavite, DSWD Alfonso, municipal health official, municipal planning department, local national statistics office, local police officers, NGO’s, students and pastors, had a monthly meeting on March 9th, 2015. AWH joined LCPC in January 2015.20150309_144540 (Large)DSWD and NSO recognized AWH efforts of helping indigents in barangay Mangas II residents procure birth certificates in the previous month, as well as repairing the roof of and donation of a steel bunk bed to the youth counseling center.Roof repair of Alfonso Post Office & Police StationSince protection of LCPC extends to women and elderlies, it was discussed to set the date for “Women’s Empowerment Day” to be on March 24th and preparation for it.

AWH which supported national polio/measles/rubella vaccination campaign in September 2014 with Alfonso health officials expressed its health concern against TB (tuberculosis) and willingness to support the municipal health office (MHO) for prevention of its spreading.
Dr. Manzo mentioned that DOH (Department of Health) provides the tuberculin test supplies and medicines. However the problem is not so many residents visit the health office to receive the test so the MHO plans to visit each barangay to conduct the test month by month. Since the funds run out sometimes Dr. Manzo mentioned that it would be a big help if AWH supports this TB activities.

 

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Indigent Family Support with Overseas Guestss

Guests from overseas, largely Japan, had assisted donation of clothing, rice, food materials to the indigent families of the squatter village in barangay Mangas II, Alfonso, Cavite. Totally 5 days in different groups AWH staff took them to the site where clothing, rice, staples and baked goods were distributed as to the needs of the families.DSCF6144 (Medium) 20150216_144507 (Medium) 20150216_144943 (Medium) DSCF6137 (Medium) DSCF6016 (Large)An undernourished single mother at Gulug Mangas II, asked for assistance for her baby born in 2014 as it had a golfball-size swelling on her left arm. Pediatrician Dr. Nasu from Japan visited AWH and also the site and diagnosed the swelling as possible infantile venous hemangioma which usually shrinks naturally after 1 year from birth.

20150216_145729 (Medium)20150216_145902 (Medium)Another baby who was 10 days old at that time seemed all right but Dr. Nasu diagnosed as possible hyperbilirubinemia due to an indication of slight jaundice. It is however normal for some new born babies so just further observation was advised.DSCF6138 (Medium)DSCF6122 (Medium)

Giving Birth Certificates to Indigents

Philippine population is counted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) and it is said to be 97 million as of 2013. In the meantime, according to CIA website of The World Factbook indicates it 107.7 million as July 2014 estimate. We always wonder from where this discrepancy comes.

Many of the new residents of Gulud, barangay Mangas squatter village in Alfonso, Cavite, consisting presently of about 47 families, migrated from Western Samar to Manila and also Bacoor, Cavite about 10 years ago. Children born during these wanderings, along with some of the adults, largely have no birth certificates, which are usually required to apply for Philhealth (national health insurance).
AWH had meetings with the indigents and a young leader stepped forward to put together a written survey (name, date of birth, where born, mother, father, etc. of everyone not having a birth certificate).

Later day AWH staff visited Gulud together with Gina of Alfonso DSWD, Dr. Manzo of Alfonso Municipal Health Center, and Tess of NSO, Barangay Mangas captain and a pastor of Born Again Christian and discussed about the procedure to apply for birth certificates of about 60 indigents.

20150127_101305 (Large) 20150127_104718 (Large)The NSO official stated that the requirements of delayed registration for birth certificates are as follows:
– NSO Negative Certification (certification of no birth certificate) P140/persons
– Baptismal
– Medical (immunization) Records
– School Records (Form 137)
– Barangay Certification
– Certificate of Indigence

(name of child, date and place of birth, name of parents)
– Voters Registration Certification
– Marriage Contract of Applicant
– Marriage Contract of Parents
– SSS Records
– Cenomar of Parents

20150202_100710 (Large)AWH delivered an additional van load of bundled firewood and pledged to assist NSO with payment for the NSO negative certification.

Local pastors volunteered to provide birth certificates for the Brgy. Mangas II indigents for free.20150202_093923 (Large)

Baptismal Certificate given by a chapel of Iglesia ni Christo (Large)20150202_095611 (Large)As part of NSO requirements, nine children ages 0-59 months that had not yet resided at the squatter village during the September 2014 mass immunization were immunized.

Immunization for children under five years old 04 Immunization team from Alfonso Municipal Health

Livelihood Support in Barangay Mangas, Alfonso, Cavite

DSWD had requested assistance for Gulud Mangas the “squatter” village created by destitute persons from other regions. 47 families were counted during our visit and each family pays Php250 monthly lease for a small housing pad within the agricultural property dotted with mango trees. The club bought two 25kilo sacks of rice and AWH bought another three sacks to provide 2.5 kg rice to each of 47 families. Biscuits and drinks for the children were provided by DSWD. The gift giving was combined with family planning education. Since most households lacked firewood for cooking AWH staff had donated and had made arrangement with the brgy. captain to pick up truck loads of chopped and bundled firewood prepared for this purpose. However, since the brgy truck had broken down Rotarians used the AWH van to deliver the bundled firewood the next two days as time was of the essence since the dirt road cannot be used by vehicles during rainy days. Clothing donated to the club from Japanese visitors as well as other incidentals were distributed also.

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Home for the 100th Sheep – Christmas Giving

December 13, 2014

AWH staff proceeded with its van fully loaded with cut and bundled firewood to the 100th Sheep Resettlement Camp in Dasmarinas. After unloading the firewood which is much sought after for cooking, AWH staff then went Christmas shopping for the children of the Resettlement Camp, purchasing the needed items to feed 130 children from three local grammar schools during their Dec. 17th Christmas party.DSCF5604 (Large) DSCF5605 (Large) DSCF5607 (Large) DSCF5609 (Large) DSCF5611 (Large) DSCF5612 (Large) DSCF5615 (Large) DSCF5618 (Large) DSCF5620 (Large) DSCF5621 (Large)

Barangay Christmas Party 2014

A little Christmas event was held for children on December 20, 2014 at the barangay hall in Sicat, Alfonso, Cavite, where AWH is located. AWH provided pasta and ice cream for 100 children. Barangay captain also joined and greeted the children. He told us that the participated children were one third of the entire children population in Sicat. AWH talked with him about necessity of family planning, otherwise no bright future for these children growing in poverty, hunger and joblessness situation.
Nevertheless, all the children enjoyed the food. 10 gallons of ice cream went empty in about an hour.

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Alfonso Children’s Day 2014

December 19, 2014 @ Municipality of Alfonso

The five poorest families from each of the 32 barangays (villages) in the municipality were chosen to receive gifts. The gifts consisted of a backpack with school materials inside. Mayor Varias and his Vice Mayor greeted everyone and the mayor gave out the gifts. We assisted with the gift giving.
The second part of the event consisted of gift-giving to the handicapped children (PWD: Persons With Disabilities). This consisted of the children, assisted by their parents, receiving the same backpack gift and their guardians receiving Php2,300 cash in an envelope handed out by the major. The cash represented the semester school support for the handicapped.

Raymund, Kimiyo and Klaus represented both AWH and Rotary and Klaus was requested to give a short talk on behalf of Rotary. It was a heart-warming event.

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Visiting House with No Steps Foundation

Since DSWD (Department of Social Welfare Development) Alfonso introduced AWH madam Luz in Bahay San Jose, Alfonso, Cavite 2 years ago, we have visited them often and brought our Japanese guests to her “Angels”.
Eleven of the residents are orphans (except the daughter of Ms. Luz) and severely handicapped due to polio, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy.The House with No Steps Foundation owns the property and Ms. Luz volunteers there to take care of them.
AWH with its guests occasionally provides rice, clothes and financial assistance for their needs.
“I remind myself about them from time to time” says Casey Takayama, vice president of AWH, “we who fortunately have no physical defect are able to see, hear, talk and walk. Why not do our best to help others?”
Although these eleven “Angels” do not have any choice to do anything, it might give a meaning to their existence.

House with No Steps House with No Steps