THE cases of child wasting (being too thin for one’s height) in Brgy. San Martin this municipality had been successfully eliminated following the completion of a 10-month school-based nourishment program jointly undertaken by the local government units, the Department of Education and power producer Steag State Power Inc. (SPI).
During a recent stakeholders forum, San Martin Elementary School Principal Ma. Theresa Delegencia reported that the cases of 174 severely wasted pupils identified during the start of the school year in 2015 dropped to zero in March 2016. Last year, San Martin ranked 1st among the 11 public schools in Villanueva in the incidence of child wasting, prompting SPI to adopt the school as one of the beneficiaries of its comprehensive Corporate Social Responsibility
(CS R) program.
About P0.9 million worth of assistance was earmarked to cover costs of daily school-based feeding activities, conduct of responsible parenting and maternal care seminars, and the construction of a one-story building for use as Children Nourishment Center.
The Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) reported that in 2015, some 21.5% of Filipino children under five years old are underweight. With this figure, the Philippines missed one of its Millenium Development Goals (MDG) of reducing by half the percentage of underweight children from 27.3% in 1990 to 13.6% by 2015. The FNRI also reported that the prevalence of stunting (being too short for one’s age) among Filipino children under age 5 increased from 30.3% in 2013 to 33.4% in 2015, while the prevalence of child wasting among
Filipino children under age 5 stood at 7.1%.
The cases of underweight, malnutrition, stunting and wasting affect not only the physical health of children, but also their mental development. If unabated, these conditions will cause irreversible damage which may last until adulthood, ultimately affecting their productivity in the long run.
SPI’s support in addressing community-based social problems forms part of the company’s continuing commitment to help improve quality of life of the people in its host communities in Misamis Oriental. pr
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