CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (PIA)--With the pressing threats posed by the highly transmissible COVID delta variant that reached northern Mindanao, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)-10 encouraged the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) and members of the Local Youth Development Council (LYDC) to involve their peers to take action amidst the pandemic.

“As future leaders of this nation, I urge all of you to take part in all government undertakings. Even the small and simple act of doing your part in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in your communities, this will result in a positive change,” said DILG-10 Regional Director Arnel Agabe.

Agabe briefly discussed to the young participants the efforts of the government in containing the much dreaded variant of the virus. With its ability to be transmitted easily, he called each one to strictly enforce the minimum public health standards in their communities.

“We know that young people are not vulnerable to succumb to the ill-effects of COVID but I hope that you remind your peers to consider those around them, their parents, grandparents who are at risk of being hospitalized once infected.”

He also promoted volunteerism by encouraging the youth to consider participating in contact tracing activities. Banking on the invincibility of the youth versus the virus, an augmentation on the number of contact tracers on the ground would be a game-changer in this fight.

Agabe said, “In PDITR strategy, if we could detect those who are COVID positive and they are immediately quarantined, we could avoid infecting more individuals unnecessarily. With your power and your number, this is possible.”

With the availability of the vaccines already, Agabe is hopeful that the pandemic will soon end. He encouraged the youth leaders to come up with programs and projects that will help their young constituents recover economically.

“In our efforts to recover from this pandemic, I suggest you come up with a kabuhayan assistance or interventions for the youth that will hone their skills for them to be employable,” he advised.

The virtual activity dubbed as Youth Matters was a Policy Advocacy Consultation led by the National Youth Commission (NYC), August 2.

Presentations were made by Assistant Secretary Alexa Danielle Dayanghirang, commissioner representative for Mindanao, for the five proposed policies, namely: (1) Online Platforms for Graduate Studies, (2) Mandatory Mental Health Break, (3) Commission on Audit (COA) help desk, (4) Empowering Young Mothers, and (5) Prioritization of Slots for Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM).

The DILG and NYC continuously organize interventions for the young people for them to be proactive and productive future leaders to sustain the efforts of the government. (DILG-10/PIA-10)