“It takes a village to raise a child.” -African Proverb

Bayugan City is a landlocked province in Agusan del Sur, composed of forty-three (43) barangays. Each barangay has its own Child Development Center (CDC) that caters to Filipino children aged 3 -4 years old. To realize the city’s mission to provide basic welfare services to the poor, vulnerable, marginalized individuals, families and communities through its programs and projects, the LGU of Bayugan City worked hard to provide the basic necessities, an example of this is the support for the development centers in every barangay, through the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO).

To ensure the efficiency of delivery of service, the city’s local government ensures to include in their Annual Investment Plan, particularly in the Gender and Development (GAD) Plan and Local Council for the Protection of Children, the budget for Day Care Services. They secured and ensured the budget for advocacies and campaign for CDC – emphasizing  health, nutrition, education, participation and protection.

Bayugan City has ordinances and resolutions that covers the welfare of the children of the community. 85% of its barangays have functional Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC).

To achieve the city’s vision and mission for its constituents, the LGU had established the Local Finance Committee to be composed by the local planning and development officers, local budget officer, and the local treasurer that would determine and recommend to the local chief executive the level of the annual expenditures and the ceiling of spending for economic, social and general services based in the approval of local development plans.

The LGU had allocated P100,000.00 for the refresher course for Child Development Workers (CDW) to ensure that they be able to function well in their respective CDCs. The LGU had provided Learning Materials and Resource Packages to improve the quality of teaching for CDWs.

The City has a total of 78 CDWs and 78 CDCs. The city’s 74 CDWs and CDCs are all 100% accredited and the remaining 4 CDWs and CDCs are already subject for accreditation assessment this year. The city has two Level 3 and seventeen Level 2 CDWs and CDCs and fifty-five CDWs and CDCs in Level 1. The accreditation process serves as indicators for the CDCs and CDWs that they reached at least the minimum standards required by the DSWD Central Office and Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Council.

The city of Bayugan has a total number of 3,019 enrolled children aged 3-4 years old. 2,797 are enrolled at CDCs while the remaining 222 are with the Supervised Neighborhood Play (SNP). The parents of the CDC students are all active in every activity spearheaded by the CDWs. One of the activities that the children are regularly participating in is the Supplementary Feeding Program.

As of now there is no reported drop-outs in all CDCs of Bayugan City. This data is a proof that the LGU of Bayugan is giving their best in taking care of its constituents especially the children.

To ensure the personal and professional development of the CDWs, the LGU of Bayugan provided technical assistance as well as trainings, seminar-workshops, coaching and mentoring, capacity building, educational tours, provision of learning materials and equipment, and construction of standardized CDCs.

These training, seminars, and assistance capacitate CDWs to learn new techn iques in handling children and equip them to be effective teachers. Experience is the best teacher, that is why the CDWs of Bayugan are all competitive and passionate because of the new lessons they learned from these activities provided and spearheaded by the LGU. The LGU of Bayugan has even allocated P300,000.00 for ECCD checklist, learning resource packages, and other materials for the session plan of the CDWs in monitoring the development of the CDCs and children enrolled in the centers.

The LGU of Bayugan also implemented programs and services like Supplementary Feeding Program, Deworming, and other Nutritional and Health related services like providing vitamins and other supplements to children ages 0-5 years old. They also have activities that involve parent-child teamwork that promotes responsible parenting, positive discipline and other programs that prioritizes the welfare of the children and the whole family.

The LGU of Bayugan has also been actively conducting information drives and educational campaigns on Anti-Child Labor, Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention and other advocacies that promotes the rights and welfare of the children.

As of now, the LGU of Bayugan is in to the renovations of CDCs all over the city to ensure the safety of the students. As of now, additional CDCs are also built in Brgy. Katipunan, Brgy. Maygatasan, Sta. Irene, and Taglatawan. Some of the CDCs are also working on outdoor facilities for the children’s physical activities.

The CDCs of Bayugan City have their own set of Day Care Parents’ Support Groups (DCSPG) in which the officers also help the CDWs set house rules for the students. The city also has a federation of all the support parents from different CDCs.

Bayugan City is a Child Friendly City, which prioritizes the welfare and well-being of the children. It is an example of a local government unit that implements Day Care Services with excellence.