SUMMIT. Board Member Mayella Mae Plameras-Ladislao, chair of the Committee on Health, Sanitation, and Social Services, delivers her message at the Antique Children’s Federation Summit and Election at the Kinaray-a Hotel in San Jose de Buenavista on Wednesday (Nov. 23, 2023). Ladislao said that children-leaders can influence their peers and communities to promote the welfare of children and adolescents. (PNA photo by Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The child representative to the Antique Provincial Council on Child Protection (PCPC) wanted an intensified campaign to raise awareness on issues affecting adolescents.
Carl Angelou Fuetes, president of the Antique Children’s Federation and child representative to the PCPC, said he wanted to conduct more symposia in schools and communities in the province.
“There is really a need for children in the province to be able to attend a symposium about adolescent health and other confronting issues,” Fuetes said in an interview following his election to the post during the Antique Children’s Federation Summit on Thursday.
He said a massive dissemination of programs and services responsive to the needs of adolescents could help prevent teenage pregnancy.
The Antique Provincial Population Office report showed that at least 10 teenagers aged 19 years old got pregnant in 2022, while there were already 574 cases of teenage pregnancies for the first half of 2023.
In addition to the symposium, Fuetes said he will also support the mobile library project of the Antique provincial library to develop children’s habit of reading.
Antique provincial board member Mayella Mae Plameras-Ladislao, chair of the Committee on Health, Sanitation, and Social Services, said youth leaders have the potential to influence their peers and their communities.
“These children-leaders who are now in their elementary to puberty stage could really help build an avenue where their peers could be listened to and raise their self-esteem,” she said in her message during the summit.
She said suicide and bullying are also common among children, and young leaders could provide them with their needed support, especially when their parents are too busy to attend to them. (PNA)
