FDS ON AIR. Felipa Ricarte Padasas, whose household graduated from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the municipality of Anini-y, Antique on March 25, 2021, says she found the Family Development Session (FDS) helpful to her as a parent. The FDS will be aired over a radio station in Antique starting this June. (PNA file photo Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program's (4Ps) Family Development Session (FDS) will go on air starting this June.
The FDS-On-Air is intended for the parents of the 4Ps beneficiaries to help them receive the cash grants through the program, at the same time learn values and helpful parenting methods.
Jeffrey Gabucay, the 4Ps Provincial Link in Antique, said in an interview on Thursday that they will have a once-a-month program at the DYKA Radio Station of the Kauswagan Broadcasting Corporation located in this capital town.
“We are still setting the specific day as to when we will launch the program this June though,” he said.
He added that they are also waiting for the FDS Module, which had been developed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) that will be used in the program.
“We will as much discuss the topics on the Module in Antique’s local dialect so that it would be easily understood by the audience,” he said.
Even before the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the FDS was being conducted by the Pantawid staff among the household beneficiaries face-to-face, but given the present situation, the sessions will now be conducted through a radio program.
“What is advantageous with the FDS-On-Air is that even 4Ps household beneficiaries that had already graduated from the program and are no longer being monitored could still listen to the discussion,” he said.
As of April 30, the latest 4Ps figures showed 28,753 household beneficiaries in the province of Antique.
Through the DYKA Radio Station, Gabucay said they would be able to reach even the household beneficiaries in the remote areas up to the southernmost town of Anini-y to Libertad in the north.
Felipa Ricarte Padasas, a 4Ps parent, said during her graduation that FDS had helped her a lot by enriching " my knowledge on how to be a responsible parent to my children".
Padasas' household was among the first batch of graduates from the program last March 25, having no more 18-year-old child or below being monitored.
For nine years that her household was a beneficiary of the 4Ps, she said she was never absent from their FDS session because of the learnings, not only as a parent but as an active member of the community. (PNA)
