Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental -- “God has been helping me through 4Ps. I can only repay Him by helping others. I know being a parent leader is an opportunity to help others and therefore, a chance to repay God’s kindness,” uttered Helen T. Edago, a mother of four and a parent leader in Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental.

 

There are seven puroks (zones) in barangay Bolinsong, Bonifacio. To facilitate 4Ps implementation, the beneficiary families were grouped into six clusters, where each cluster comprises of about 30 members and is represented by a parent leader. Helen T. Edago, Sabina P. Largo and Natalie Salguero are among the parent leaders. In a small gathering, the three women shared their bittersweet experiences, tough challenges and transformation from timid housewives to proud parent leaders through the intervention of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

Natalie is a mother of two and the wife of a fisherman. Her daily routine includes preparing meals, cleaning their house and taking care of her children. Like her fellow parent leaders, she was not able to finish her education because of their economic condition. Thus, she grew up insecure and unconfident. She only had a few friends because she was too shy to socialize with others.  Having no one to turn to, Natalie married at an early age and became a mother at 21. According to her, at that time, her life led to only one direction, to a road that perpetuated poverty.  

“I can relate to Natalie’s experience. I’ve always wanted to finish my education, but coming from a big family, we could not expect our parents to send us all to school,” shared Helen. Her parents worked hard to get her eldest sister to college, believing that when she graduates she will be able to support her younger siblings. To her parents’ disappointment, her sister got pregnant while in college. Without a better future to look forward to, Helen followed the path that most poor women in rural community took; early marriage and parenthood. “It was a trend in our neighborhood that women marry at an early age, especially those who only finished high school,” said Helen.

Sabina’s life was no different from other parent leaders. She was one of the smartest in class during grade school and was in the first section in high school. She was determined to continue schooling but her family could not afford to send her to college. Instead of the university gate opening to her, the door of a shabby market welcomed her and the stinking smell of fish and poultry greeted her. Since then, she has not stopped working even now that she had a family of her own.

Sabina and her husband are working hard for their children to finish their studies and have a better life. “I constantly pray that God would open to them a new road, a road different from what we have taken,” stated the misty-eyed Sabina.

Prayers were answered when their families became part of the 3,193 household beneficiaries of 4Ps in Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental. 4Ps is a poverty reduction and social development program which provides conditional cash grants to the poorest households in the country to improve their health, nutrition and education. It aims to end the intergenerational poverty cycle through investments in human capital. A household with children with age below 15 years old can receive as much as P1, 400 per month. A maximum of three children per household may receive educational grants. “P1, 400 may seem like a small amount for most people, but it has greatly helped us in keeping up with our daily expenses,” said Sabina, who receives P1, 400 a month for the education and health needs of her three children.

It was during their first community assembly when Sabina, Natalie, and Helen were selected as parent leaders. “We were chosen by our fellow beneficiaries”, stated Helen. The parent leader is the liaison between 4Ps, the LGU Link and the household grantees at the barangay level. She leads the group in their meetings, follows up and monitors the receipt and use of cash grants and attendance of the beneficiaries to community assemblies and family development sessions. She is also responsible for the dissemination of information regarding the schedules of community and general assemblies.

Beneficiaries and parent leaders have been regularly attending Family Development Sessions where they are taught about effective parenting, proper household management and active community involvement. The clusters hold meetings twice a month. “We are very strict with the attendance of members,” stated Helen, “In our group we charge a penalty of P10.00 for those who are absent and P5.00 for those who are late.”  Sabina has a different way of encouraging her members to attend and participate. At the start of the meeting, Sabina collects P10.00 from each member and raffles off their collection to the group before the meeting adjourns. Besides the twice a month meetings, they also conduct community activities such as gardening and clean and green project. “We encourage our fellow beneficiaries to start their own backyard garden”, Natalie proudly said. The local government of Bonifacio supports their activity by sponsoring the seeds for their vegetable garden.

Once a month, the parent leaders meet with the Municipal Link (ML) to discuss the problems and updates in their respective groups. According to parent leaders, most problems encountered by their members is their difficulty in using the ATM cards and would frequently ask for their help. There are some who would seek advice for their personal problems. The parent leaders also assist the ML in monitoring the compliance of beneficiaries to the conditionalities of the program. “We visit schools and ask the teachers if the children of our members are regularly attending classes. We also remind our members, especially those who are pregnant, to avail of pre-natal check-up at health centers,” said Sabina as most pregnant women in Bonifacio still prefer the services of the manghihilot over the trained medical workers.

The confidence, diligence and dedication that parent leaders show in their work also inspire their members to become actively involved. The beneficiaries are now participating in community activities and are more confident to voice out their ideas during meetings and community assemblies. Their members are grateful to them for the improvement in them. The mothers have not only gained confidence as they act as 4Ps parent leaders; they have also gained knowledge, skills and most importantly, the trust and friendship of their fellow mothers. Helen cheerfully expressed, “Whenever my fellow beneficiaries thank me for the help I give them, I feel elated knowing that it is God’s way of telling me that I am doing a good job.”  ### (4Ps Social Marketing Unit)