World Teachers’ Day, held annually on October 5th since 1994 – when it was created by UNESCO – celebrates teachers worldwide. Its aim is to mobilise support for teachers and to ensure that the needs of future generations will continue to be met by teachers.

In two straightforward words, pay tribute to your teacher with appreciation – THANK YOU.

The Department of Education (DepEd) on Thursday called on learners to honor their teachers with very simple thank you as it launched the month-long festivity of school teachers in public and private schools across the country.

Education Secretary opened up DepEd’s “Thank You, Teacher” campaign as part of celebrations of Teachers’ Month this September and World Teachers’ Day on Oct. 5.

“I think we should regularly take time to revitalize the image of teachers and pull public attention to their importance in society,” Education Secretary said.

Luistro also pressed students to engage their creativity and say their thank yous in their individual distinctive way, from writing them very simple notes and providing tokens to placing messages to their favourite teachers by means of social media.

-from DepEdteacher.blogspot.com

To celebrate this special day, show your teachers appreciation and love!

This year’s Nutrition Month theme is “Isulong ang Breast-feeding – Tama, Sapat at Ekslusibo”.

It has often been mentioned that the future of the country lies in our children. But what kind of future could it be when majority of our children are classified today as undernourished? In studies conducted by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Filipino children through the years have been afflicted with Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM) resulting from inadequate intake of energy and protein food, particularly school age children.

According to statistics, 31.8 percent of school age children are underweight, 32 percent are stunted, and 6.6 percent suffer from wasting. Aside from PEM, Anemia and deficiencies in Vitamin A and Iodine continue to exist as the country’s major nutritional concern. Recent research also shows that it is not only clinically severe malnutrition, but also moderate malnutrition, that exponentially increases mortality risk in young children. Moderate malnutrition also places children at risk of delayed cognitive and psychomotor development and of increased immunity.

In observance of nutrition month, the Department of Education (DepED) launched an information campaign with the theme, “Batang May Kinabukasan, Sa Wastong Nutrisyon Simulan” which focuses on the importance of ensuring good nutrition among the pre-schoolers. Another project of the department is the National School Health Maintenance Drive which is a universal medical and dental health examination for first to third graders in all public elementary schools in  the country.

Local government units on the other hand, particularly the City of Manila, organized a series of activities in their districts, such as feeding, weighing, deworming, and Vitamin A and Iron supplementation. The city government also conducted nutrition- related activities including daily feeding programs for school children in the city’s 71 public elementary schools and pre-schoolers in the city’s 340 day care and 28 home-based centers. Private companies such as Unilever Philippines and Coca-cola Bottlers Philippines, also cooperated and funded such programs, and at times, engaged their employees to volunteer  in various nutritional programs.

Enrique Zobel Foundation did its part by developing a four phase project called “Sagip Malnutrisyon sa Batang Mag-aaral” which is aimed to lower malnutrition and increase scholarship, particularly in the province of Calatagan, Batangas.

With all these counter measures, I believe the government’s battle on malnutrition could be won in no time. But as the saying goes “an ounce of prevention is better than cure” and one important factor that is somewhat overlooked is breastfeeding. Studies show that breastfed babies grow up to be, on the average, more intelligent, emotionally secure, and healthy than infant formula-fed babies. Six months of breastfeeding is needed for “optimal infant growth, development and health”.  Whether the decline is a result of the successful marketing of infant formulas, I still think the government should resume, or start a new promotion campaign on the importance of breastfeeding.

Source: DEPED http://www.deped.gov.ph/e_posts.asp?id=371

We should always remember that an ounce of prevention is way better than a pound of cure.  And one of the best ways of preventing sickness is washing our hands.

But washing our hands is not enough.  We should always wash it the proper way.   How to do it?  Follow this.

Avoid getting sick so wash your hands the proper way!