I am happy that you, our day care workers have been given a well-deserved and most welcome respite from the rigor, drudgery and seemingly unending tasks and appointments in their respective areas.

We need a refresher once in a while. But this is not in anyway saying that the activities during the past two days was a no brainer.  Far from it, i guess this conference tackled topics and issues critical to our day care service in our localities. More significantly, i believe that in any exercise like this one, the lessons learned from the healthy and sometimes heated exchanges among your peers, superiors and invited experts will serve as building blocks for your own practical application in a classroom setting with your wards.

The stage at which children are entrusted to the care of a day care worker is the most crucial in their lives. Mothers and much less the day care worker can not easily dismiss the impact of a child’s first step outside the confines and comfort of the home.  In essence, at this sensitive stage of their lives they are being pulled out of their comfort zone, thus great care should be exercised to ensure that they are provided a nurturing environment to stimulate and kindle their natural curiosity and innate talent. The center should be regarded as a friendly and embracing second home.

The skills required in teaching have changed dramatically. In one pre- school I was told that the young teacher conducted rehearsals for a social act. Guests were coming and the children were taught to look each guest in the eye and say “hello”. Rehearsals for this social act were conducted and the result was something everybody enjoyed. What I am driving at is that day care workers can use the center as a social laboratory. During this tender and impressionable phase, your role as a caring surrogate parent assumes a crucial dimension. You have been entrusted this responsibility. In the case of a solo parent who has to earn a living to keep body and soul together, the availability of a facility ready to provide temporary care and creative services to a child is a most ideal arrangement. In the absence of parents during these formative years, the day care worker’s role cannot be disputed. That is why we at DSWD have not stopped upgrading your skills and competencies by regular enrichment through activities like this one which we believe serves also as stress reliever particularly in this special venue. As a field worker before, I know this job requires a lot from you, i understand the kind of affinity that you are able to forge with the kids under your care. Sometimes, you tell yourself, its incredible seeing them growing and transforming before your eyes. Your ego is reasonably inflated. Again, you feel your heart flatter.

This gets me to thinking. Isn’t it that when we use the word “vulnerable” we always refer to our clients? How about us or you people delivering the services, aren’t we also vulnerable to heartaches and pains when we see our wards or children under our care in seemingly hopeless and distressing moments? I doubt if any of you can be dispassionate about your job. No matter how hard and grueling your day has been, a smile and thank you can make you feel euphoric. This is one of those times when we are not offended when people brand us   mababaw ang kaligayahan... we don’t really have to intellectualize when it comes to enjoying our job with our innocent wards. We can’t help looking at them with understanding and sometimes amused indulgence.

I am certain that the previous speakers have given you substantial inputs as gleaned from the workshop outputs. I hope that you have been sufficiently energized and inspired by the facts, figures and other significant data yielded by the UNICEF-ECCD PIR of 2009. I also wish to congratulate you for including a significant topic like the status of the Magna Carta for Day Care Workers.

Each forum that one goes through is an outlet for rediscovering or for re-inventing oneself. i advise you to have this mindset. In the almost 50,000 day care centers we have nationwide, child rearing has ceased to be the sole responsibility of parents. We have and still continue to equip you with the appropriate tools so that you can become effective and caring surrogate parents, approximating those of the real parents to their children. i have seen how some of you have tried innovative approaches to sustain the energies and impatience of children under your care.  I encourage you in your attempts to employ out of the box thinking..  We cannot forever stay in the backwaters of change, otherwise we get waylaid in the race to excellence. Mediocrity has gone out of fashion particularly among our DCWs.

My congratulations to all of you.  Enjoy the rest of the day.

Speech delivered by Acting Secretary Celia Capadocia-Yangco at the National Day Care Workers Consultation Conference, Bohol Plaza Resort, Panglao Island, Tagbilaran City, Bohol on February 12, 2010.