MATUGUINAO, SAMAR - Christmas came early for dozens of children in a former insurgency-infested municipality located in the tri-boundary of Northern, Western, and Eastern Samar.
Letecea Tumagara, 42, beamed with joy as she saw her four children receive toys, food, slippers, and hygiene kits from JCI Tacloban love Inc., the local police, and members of the Special Action Force in Brgy. Barruz here recently.
"My children just pick anything that they can play with on the streets. We could not afford to buy them toys," Tumagara said.
Both she and her husband work as farmers to sustain the needs of their family. However, she said their income is barely enough to buy their needs.
Although Matuguinao town is no longer included among the top 10 municipalities with the highest malnutrition rate, Cecille Armateo, the Municipal Nutrition Action Officer, said the poverty-stricken town's malnutrition rate remains at 24 percent.
Aside from teaching them proper hand-washing and oral hygiene, the local health officer also conducted deworming, measles vaccination, weighing of the children and giving them vitamins.
Capt. Orlando M Cañada, officer-in-charge of Matuguinaw Police, said they also gave a free haircut to the children as part of the "Barangayanihan Caravan" and the "MaTOYguinao Uyagan Kalipayan" Project.
"We want to bring government services closer to the people so they would no longer be enticed to join the armed conflict," Cañada shared.