As part of Coaches Across Continents’ (CAC) Global COVID-19 response efforts, Community Impact Coaches (CIC’s) worldwide led training programs using CAC’s purposeful play curriculum, COVID awareness resources and mental health education. CAC is a US registered nonprofit which partners with community organizations in more than 100 countries. These partnerships consist of year-round comprehensive organizational development and sport for social impact education. CAC has been one of FundLife’s long-term partners and our very own Football for Life Academy and Girls Got This coach Patrina Kaye N. Caceres who has worked alongside CAC since 2014, domestically and internationally, as one of its Philippine Community Impact Coaches was handpicked by CAC to receive funding and to lead two two-day on field training programs in Tacloban City. As Coach Patty puts it: “it’s a very different feeling to actually lead the programs as compared to assisting as a Community Impact Coach because I had to step up my facilitating game. I had to be more confident with my voice and had to assess what can be done better after every training day. But with the help of my two chosen CIC’s from FundLife, coaches Da and Pao, I believe we were able to handle the sessions very well. We banked on each other’s strengths to ensure that the individual weaknesses we had, will not hinder the success of the two programs.” On November 29 and 30, the first training program started. Here the main focus was to educate FundLife coaches. One of the aspiring coaches, Daniel, shared his insights about the training: “I learned a lot from the CAC training, not just about coaching football but also about different social issues. I found it amazing that CAC’s curriculum had drills and other games to raise awareness about social issues. I am sure our players will have fun during the sessions if we use the games we learned, because the other coaches and I had so much fun. There was not a moment when we were not laughing or smiling during the two-day training program. I became more confident as a coach and I am really thankful that I got to experience such an out of the box coaching education.” The second training program took place on December 17 and 18. It was open to all and was participated by some coaches, players, teachers, community leaders and representatives from the Department of Education as well as our FundLife staff. One of the participants, Teacher Lily, who was Coach Patty’s first grade teacher, and is now a principal at an elementary school in Tacloban City, shares her thoughts about the CAC training session: “the session was a fun one and it feels good to learn new tricks in educating and coaching from your pupil.” The two training programs were also part of YOUnified, the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) anniversary youth-led activities for the Philippines this year. FundLife and CAC ensured the training programs had followed IATF and local health protocols. Through the training programs, Coaches Across Continents delivered its promise of mentoring and empowering communities through the organizations they partner with. Words by Patrina Caceres (Coach Patty)
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In December, FundLife was able to continue with the educational community led sessions through football led by the Football for Life Academy and Girls Got This coaches for children from 10 to 18 years old. Every session the coaches focus on social issues that affect children in their day to day life. All sessions follow the strict health and safety protocols under the guidance of the LGU's, making sure all players are checked on symptoms before attending the session and maintain social distancing during the trainings. This month the focus was on Gender Equality, Safe Spaces and Teamwork. Through fun games and activities the coaches teach the players about issues and try to keep it fun but engaging by letting the children interact with each other and talk about experiences they have faced themselves. We want to teach our players the importance of being knowledgeable about concepts that are important to them as future adults and leaders in their community. We encourage them too, to give their opinions and have confidence in their own voices. It is therefore wonderful to see when our players give their thoughts during the discussions after each game/drill. One of the players even told the coaches that it is amazing how they are having fun and at the same time, learn about the world they live in through the games we teach them. He also said that through attending the sessions, he has become more productive in his school work. As one of his motivations is to finish his tasks so his parents allow him to attend the sessions as long as his modules are done before Saturday. ''A child’s safety is everyone’s responsibility'', said Julie Ruth Martija, Social Welfare Officer II from the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office of Dulag, during the coach’s orientation workshop on Child Rights and Child Protection last July 25, 2020.
Eleven (11) youth mentors from FundLife who have been working with communities and children participated in the refresher orientation for child protection policy during COVID-19 quarantine measures. The discussion of the orientation was anchored on the mandate of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the lawson child protection in the Philippines. Through the activity, the coaches were able to share and discuss common issues and concerns they encounter working as youth mentors who directly engage with children in various learning and play activities. They also learned how to report and properly respond as youth mentors to different types of abuse at the time of COVID-19 quarantine measures . The seminar helped youth mentors gain a better understanding on how they can ensure the safety and security of children through FundLife’s current online education initiatives during the on-going COVID-19 crisis. “I expect that all the things we learned today, we (youth mentors and coaches) be in our hearts, mind and in our actions,” said Coach John Paul, FundLife youth mentor, when asked about his thoughts after the workshop training. Prior to the training, the youth mentors were also able to attend the first part of the webinar session about Safeguarding in Sports through the initiative of UNICEF and 'Street Football World' on July 23, 2020. The webinar session enabled the coaches to get good practices from various organizations about safeguarding. These capacity building activities are timely for FundLife’s front liners to be able to ensure that children are well protected from all forms of harm and violence in our COVID-19 Response Training Sessions. Through a partnership with the Barangay Local Government Unit of Libertad, Palo Leyte and San Isidro, Tacloban, FundLife initiated a COVID-19 Educational Session Response for children from 10 to 18 years old started last Monday, August 3 2020. This pilot initiative aims to provide play-based learning sessions to children and youth in quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Working under strict health and safety protocols and under guidance of the LGU's , FundLife has agreed to deliver 25 educational sessions that will reach 90 children (50% girls) from three different communities. Many children have been without access to learning since March 14th, and these sessions, in addition to sharing key COVID-19 health information are also intended to provide much needed access to learning for children and youths. These communities were included in recently conducted survey about the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Children and adolescents in these areas expressed the negative psychological and emotional effects of the pandemic. FundLife youth mentors and coaches designed sessions that target to strengthen the awareness of children and young adolescents on hygiene, sanitation, and nutrition with special focus on responsiveness to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through football and carefully planned play activities children would be given a safe platform to learn while playing. The pilot implementation will involve the Barangay Health Workers to ensure that the local health protocols will be consistently followed. Together with the coaches, youth mentors and other community leaders, they will create a peer group who can provide emotional and psychological support for children and young adolescents affected by the quarantine and the pandemic. Based on the signed Memorandum of Agreement with the BLGU of Libertad Palo and San Isidro Tacloban the pilot program will run for three months. Children will be divided into two batches. Each batch of children can participate in a two-hour session twice a week. FundLife is proud to be a contributor and signatory to the following open letter. Since our inception in 2014, FundLife has campaigned and led bottom-up development, support local communities through direct programming, access to funding and knowledge sharing. We are proud to add our name to Zero Extreme Poverty (ZEP) 2030 Cebu Convergence Network. The full letter is shared below; The Zero Extreme Poverty 2030 (ZEP) Cebu Convergence, consists of local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), People’s Organizations (POs), private institutions, and sectoral groups, is requesting the support of international organizations, humanitarian funding institutions and networks to provide assistance to our collective actions in addressing the needs of the vulnerable communities in Metro Cebu amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The increasing number of COVID-19 cases remains to threaten the country. As of July 21, there are already more than 68,000 confirmed cases and at least 1,800 deaths. The pandemic has become a major health crisis worldwide and in the Philippines. It has already caused detrimental effects to the country’s healthcare system and has exhausted the government’s resources. social distancing, self-isolation and travel restrictions – measures imposed to curb the outbreak have left at least 7.3 million Filipinos who lost their jobs during the lockdown (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2020). Seemingly, after months of quarantine protocols, many local government units have started to ease out quarantine restrictions – except for Cebu City.
As of July 20, 2020, there are 9,132 cases of COVID-19 in the major cities of Cebu, particularly in Cebu City, Talisay City, Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City, and the Municipality of Cordova according to the Department of Health’s COVID-19 Tracker. While the rest of these cities are already under General Community Quarantine’ status, Cebu City is the only remaining local government unit in the country under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ).Most of its barangays (villages) are under “localized hard lockdown” as a way to implement the stay-at-home rule to contain the virus. Albeit that businesses and public transportation are already allowed under this status, they are limited, and employment and economic activities of daily wage earners and informal workers remain affected. In a recent survey carried out by ZEP Cebu Convergence in May 2020 to determine the impact of COVID-19 and the community quarantine protocols to families in Metro Cebu, 84% of the 6,616 surveyed households indicated that they had a decreased income during the lockdown, and 43% of them experienced skipping meals during the quarantine period. The survey result reaffirms the priority agenda identified by ZEP in improving the lives of severely affected communities due to COVID-19, to wit: Nutrition and Food Security
Healthcare
Education
Child Nutrition and Protection
Since the declaration of the state of public health emergency last March 2020 while many local organizations, including members of the ZEP Cebu Convergence, have been acting on-ground to supplement the government’s relief efforts in providing aid to quarantined families, isolated individuals, and frontliners. Yet the prolonged implementation of lockdown has exhausted the resources available both from the government and the private organizations. With the uncertainties of vaccine development, and concrete plans for post-quarantine recovery, heightened insecurities especially among low-income families continue. If these are left unaddressed, these could push them deeper into extreme poverty and greater difficulty. In this light, the ZEP2030 Cebu Convergence, calls for a more concerted effort in responding to the immediate and long-term needs of vulnerable families. In addition, the convergence requests the international and national organizations, humanitarian funding institutions, and networks to provide support and resources to enable local organizations to continue implementing initiatives that will make a positive contribution in building a more livable, safe, healthy and resilient urban communities. The Zero Extreme Poverty 2030 (ZEP) Cebu Convergence, which was convened in Cebu last August 2019, aims to uplift 1 million families from extreme poverty to self-sufficiency. The convergence which started as a CSO-led national movement in the country in 2015, is working to continue the provision of support to the severely affected communities due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Metro Cebu. ZEP2030 Cebu Convergence July 20, 2020 Contributors and signatories to the letter;
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