MORE NEWS, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE

UNFPA cites Mt Prov college for youth project

BONTOC, Mountain Province – The United Nations Fund for Population Assistance here cited the Mountain Province State Polytechnic College here for being the first State-run higher education institution to put up its Teen LIWID Center, a youth development center that caters to the counseling needs of students.

UNFPA officials said the school’s LIWID Center will now serve as a model for other state universities and colleges to emulate in order to uphold and promote the interest of the youth within the institution.

The school’s Teen LIWID Center traces its roots from the series of trainings conducted for peer counselors last year who eventually organized themselves as LIWID early this year.

LIWID is a native term which means a friend you can trust, a friend who could provide guidance to another friend.

Janet Jaime, UNFPA representative for Mountain province, said the school’s Teen LIWID Center is the first of its kind in the country among SUCs is aimed at providing social, emotional, psychological and intellectual development of college students through integrated approach.

Through the Teen Center’s intervention programs and services, she pointed out the aspirations, priorities and challenges of the young Filipino youth in the rural areas which revolve around themselves, their families, school and environment could be satisfactorily addressed.

Moreover, Jaime added the project is in line with the medium-term youth development plan which envisions the youth to be globally competitive, productive, well-informed, patriotic with extreme love for country and culture and physically, mentally and spiritually health individuals.

Dr. Nieves A. Dacyon, MPSPC president, said the Teen LIWID Center is in support to the UNFPA program thrust on reproductive health, gender and population development.

The Teen LIWID Center provides an adolescent friendly environment where adolescents can freely interact and access information on reproductive health and counseling services among their trained peer educators and health providers.

At the same time, it seeks to institutionalize support for students and weave their individual experiences that can support and spur initiatives for rural development, excellence in global competitiveness.

The center will also access and ensure proper information on reproductive health, gender and population to reduce incidents of teenage pregnancy, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases and other pre-disposing activities; engage students to positive connectivity that develop their social, emotional, intellectual and psychological well-being while in school and empowered the youth to become responsible adults in later years.

Among the activities to be undertaken by the center include counseling, capability-building, career and life planning, information and education campaign and recreational activities.

The put up of the Teen LIWID Center is supported by the provincial government, the MPSPC family, the UNFPA and the Population Commission. -- Dexter A. See