Raising children to help shape PH future

Our country continues to be beset by poverty, criminality, corruption, among many problems. This is attributed to the failure of parents to instill moral values in their children during the formative years of their lives (that is, before they reach the age of six), the very stage that brain growth is at its critical level. Please remember that what parents teach, do and say to their children, whether right or wrong, is inculcated in their very tender and vulnerable minds, and it will have a lasting effect on their social, physical and spiritual development.

Being a physician, children’s advocate and concerned senior citizen, I feel it my duty to find a solution to these problems as my personal contribution to my country and for the good of everyone. My mission is never intended to compete with existing similar undertakings being done by the private sector or by the government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

My solution is detailed in a book I wrote for the Filipino family. It is titled “Providing Proper Care To The Pinoy Child During The Formative Years,” a complete and comprehensive guide to proper child-rearing. With over 400 illustrations, it is written in easy-to-read English-Tagalog. It provides all the four essentials of child-rearing: health, care, safety and education. It is a book every household must have! It became a bestseller in 1997. It is envisioned to help develop a “better youth of tomorrow,” inspired by an ardent hope of reviving the “good old traditional Filipino values.”

If we want to see meaningful changes in the life of our nation, we should avoid imitating the indifferent attitude of people with only their self-interest in mind, otherwise the rich will only get richer, and the gap between the rich and the poor will only grow wider.

Since the success of this undertaking is fully dependent on community involvement, I formed a movement aptly called “Crusade for a Better Youth of Tomorrow.” I am inviting concerned and civic-minded citizens, the different government agencies, the private sector, religious groups, and all interested parties to join and support this advocacy to raise a new breed of Filipinos into becoming better children of God and upright citizens of tomorrow. If you want to help solve these problems that continue to beset our nation, simply be a crusader by donating copies of this book to families with young children or you may sell it for profit, a perfect gift during this Christmas season.

You may contact us at Feadco Bldg., 161-A Shaw Boulevard, corner JB Vargas Street, Mandaluyong City; or call us at telephone number (02)533-7913/CP# 09178061936.

—DR. NESTOR A. LACEDA SR., Mandaluyong City