Notes

Si Bantay at Ako goes to He Cares Foundation

As part of the World Rabies Day celebration, GARC led a rabies education activity for out-of-school children on 12 September 2015 titled “Si Bantay at Ako goes to He Cares Foundation” at the He Cares Foundation Street Children Caring Center in Quezon City (see Appendix A for the organizational profile of He Cares Foundation).

Around 220 children ages 4 to 18 participated in the half-day activity. The morning started with a puppet show about responsible pet ownership and animal bite treatment and prevention for the children led by volunteer puppeteers from the Marikina City Veterinary Office along with the Managing Director of Pinoy Malikhain, Mr. Mark Dave Cerezo.

GARC also partnered with three student organizations from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UP ADS - UP Alliance of Development Communication Students, UP Lady Vets - UP Lady Veterinary Students’ Association, and SVCF-UPLB - State Varsity Christian Fellowship-UPLB) to help facilitate the activity. They also assisted in preparing the materials for the arts and crafts session of the children. 27 student-volunteers joined the event. Please see Appendix B for the activity mechanics and Appendix C for photos from the activity.

The activities for the breakout session were designed according to the children’s age groups (7 years old and below, 8 -11 years old, and 12 -18 years old) to ensure that they will be able to grasp the concepts that will be discussed. While the 12-18 years old group had a lecture at the He Cares Center, the two remaining groups had their own activity in the covered court. The children formed sub-groups with 10 members each facilitated by a student-volunteer. The facilitators then discussed concepts on animal bite prevention, animal bite management, and responsible pet ownership using flashcards photos from Dr. Sophia Yin’s website (http://drsophiayin.com/).

They were also able to show their creative side during the arts and crafts session where the 8-11 group made dog ears headband while the 7 and below group colored dog masks. After making their dog ears, the children from the 8-11 years old group were given puzzle pieces based on the flashcard photos which they had to put together. The facilitators recapped the concepts before ending the breakout session.

The activity is also part of GARC’s efforts under the Out-of-school Intervention (OSI) which primarily aims to educate and engage out-of-school children in urban and rural communities specifically on animal bite prevention and responsible pet ownership through informal methods of teaching. They are among the most vulnerable to animal bites and the risk of rabies infection since they may be in the streets, farm fields, and areas where unvaccinated roaming dogs may be rampant. They may not also know what to do when they are bitten.