Page 11 - EMBRACE Book

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Winefredo, Philippines
“ADRA has helped me to become a better father. I used to
believe that as long as I was working hard and providing food
for my children that I was doing my part. ADRA has taught
me that even if I am very busy, I need to make the time to
spend with my children. We have learned that we should
never wait for things to become very bad before we give our
attention. As parents, we should be so aware of our children’s
development that we are guiding and encouraging them
every step of the way so that they never develop extremely
negative behaviours. I have fully adopted this into my life
and am determined to be a good father and parent.
I am also following ADRA’s advice on what I can do to be a
better husband. I am much more attentive to the needs of my
wife now. I am more caring. As she recovers from the birth of
our third child, I am doing a lot of the housework. I am
washing the clothes so she can rest.
I am cooking the meals. I do a lot of the cooking for the family
and I have changed the way I cook to make it healthier for my
children. We are incorporating a lot more greens and
vegetables and really cutting back or eliminating artificial
flavourings such as MSG.
ADRA taught us about gender roles and how husband and
wife can share the household chores and taking care of the
children. I am doing this, and I have realized that ADRA is
right. Our marriage is much better now. We have more open
communication. When we have conflicts, we now talk it
through and resolve it. I believe open communication is
important.
I am not one for saying all the sweet things because I find that
kind of corny. But who knows? One day I might give that a try.
For now, I am concentrating on showing my wife by my
actions and help around the house that I care.
I am not one to just hang out with the guys in the village. I
want every day to have purpose, meaning, and
accomplishment. When I am not working, I spend time with
my family and playing with my children.
We have made many changes in our family as a result of the
EMBRACE trainings. We learned a lot about what we should
Photo: © 2019 ADRA | Frank Spangler
11
do to have a healthy pregnancy. The recommendations for
good nutrition for the mother while she was pregnant
sounded like good advice to me and so we made sure that she
had a good, balanced diet of nutritious food during that time.
We quit all junk food and processed foods, even stopped
drinking coffee as it would not be good for the baby. We
followed all of the recommendations for check-ups,
immunizations, and supplements.
Now, we breastfeed exclusively. Before, according to the
tradition of our village, we would never bring a newborn
baby outside into the morning air and sunshine. But because
of ADRA, we are doing that. New mothers also traditionally
stayed inside a dark room after the baby was born. ADRA
taught us that it is healthy to go out and get fresh air,
sunshine, and exercise. We followed that advice and it was
good for my wife! Other women in the village have noticed
that we did that and how it helped my wife recover.
Because our village is isolated, and many of the people who
live here are poor, ADRA came up with a way that would help
pregnant women get into the nearest clinic for check-ups as
well as emergency transport to the hospital if needed. It is
called the COMBAT system. It stands for Community Based
Transport System for pregnant women. Individuals from our
village were selected to be COMBAT officers and they were
given special training on how to handle and care for pregnant
women during transport. There was training on basic first aid
and life support. I am very happy for this. Sometimes the sea
can be rough, and it can be a difficult journey for a woman
who is full-term as she makes her way to the hospital.
ADRA has started a very innovative Savings and Loans group.
We have no bank here in our village. With the Bulsa group
that ADRA has started, we now feel as though we have a mini
bank here in our village. If we have a need or an emergency,
or we want a little start-up cash for a small business idea that
we can run from our home, we can easily apply for a loan. In
our group we have set a service charge of 5% per month for
those who take a loan. This is high, but as members of the
group, we also get direct benefit from the service fees in the
pay-out every six months. So in many ways, it works out very
good for everything to have this ADRA Savings and Loans
group in our village.”