ABOUT 500 children in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) initially stand to benefit from #BatangMatatag, a movement that aims to extend health, nutrition, sanitation and education access to conflict-affected areas in the country.
This crusade was officially launched last October 13 due to the alarming cases of famine among the country’s young populace that cause developmental issues and, much worse cost the lives of some of them.
Statistics show that 2.9 million Filipino kids aged zero to 10 years were estimated to have experienced hunger in 2021. Of this total number, about 1.8 million are from war-torn places in BARMM, who typically have a meager meal comprised of only rice with some fish- or shrimp-flavored crackers called “kropeck” as their daily source of nutrition.
Prolonged hunger in children results in malnutrition. Undernutrition affects and stops the growth of children. Around two or three of five children below five years old are stunted in the Philippines, and BARMM is the most affected with over 45 percent of them being too small for their age.
“Stunting is the most accurate way to gauge the nutritional status of children and, therefore, if you are undernourished, it is a vicious cycle. It will affect brain growth and this is tantamount to affecting also the development of children,” Dr. Joselyn Eusebio, specialist for developmental and behavioral pediatrics and associate professor at the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center, said during the kick off event in Pasay City.
This health issue is, more often than not, linked to the lack of nutritious food, inadequate sanitation, unsafe water and poor hygiene that could lead to children developing various illnesses. The most prominent of these illnesses is diarrhea that compromises the absorption of essential nutrients needed in brain development. A child who experiences this also has a concomitant infection and usually ends up with electrolyte imbalance. In case the body’s potassium in decreased, it can cause the heart to stop beating.
Such health maladies, if not addressed, could be fatal. In fact, 95 Filipino children die each day from malnutrition. Diarrhea, on the other hand, is the second leading cause of death nationwide for kids under five years of age, approximately claiming the lives of around 570,000 in this age group annually.
“Basically, this partnership aims to improve the health nutrition status of children in the most disadvantaged communities,” Save the Children Philippines Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Atty. Alberto Muyot said of their Batang Matatag campaign, together with Erceflora Kiddie, in a sideline interview with the BusinessMirror.
With BARMM as the pilot site of the project, he bared that the initial batch of beneficiaries would come from the Badjao tribe in Iligan and orphaned young victims of the Marawi siege, as well as youngsters in Lanao del Sur who have yet to be identified.
“It’s a small group. We want to test out what interventions that will reach the children, who are actually not being covered by regular programs,” he explained.
Needed interventions
THROUGH the Life Changer for Children initiative of Save the Children, the movement will immediately check on the health status of the kids, particularly on the aspect of stunting.
Secondly, it will provide a plan that focuses on their nutritional needs, with the engagement of their own families with regards to provision and preparation of nutritious food they require.
This initiative will, likewise, provide livelihood and financial literacy trainings for parents or guardians.
“And then we have to bring this to the table so that local governments will include this in their social services,” Muyot added.
Unlike other similar causes, the Batang Matatag is not just merely a charity kind of movement. He noted: “This is not just an ayuda type of project. We want to raise consciousness. We want to educate families. We want them to adopt practices that will ensure better health and nutrition for their children.”
First 1,000 Days law
THE initial three years in a child’s life is a very crucial stage for his growth and development.
“If during the first 1,000 days, a child is undernourished, it’s so hard to reverse this even if you provide all the necessary stimulation. The brain is also stunted. It’s under-developed. That’s why in that ‘Window of Opportunity,’ all the necessary factors or ingredients to optimize the development of our brains and, consequently, the development of a child should be provided for,” Dr. Eusebio said.
It is for this reason that former President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act 11148, otherwise known as the First 1,000 Days Law, in 2018 to provide for the health nutrition of pregnant mothers and children. Unfortunately, this is hardly implemented in the country, per the Save the Children CEO, primarily due to lack of funding.
“So really a big push would have to come from the government, especially local governments, who starting this year will now have access to more fundings for social services,” Muyot said.
Save the Children was part of the advocacy for the enactment of the law. Also, it helped develop its implementing rules and regulations.
“But the full implementation of that will only be felt if only local governments can really provide for the funding and the programs to reach the disadvantaged communities,” he pointed out. “I guess, we still have a long way to go to fully implement this to the local government level.”
With the Batang Matatag movement, they want to prove to everyone that it’s not just enough that there is a policy like the First 1,000 Days law.
“We have to bring it down to actual implementation at the community level,” Muyot reiterated. “We hope that local governments can get the inspiration from this project to show that, indeed, even with minimal funding, through education of communities and parents, the health nutrition status of children can really be improved.”
Initial support and more
BUILDING resilient children and communities is a gargantuan task. It takes a village to do so. The good thing about Save the Children is that it has corporate and individual donors who help it in establishing the movement and realize its very program of changing the lives of those in need.
With the benevolence of the makers of Erceflora Kiddie, which bankrolled the program initially with P12 million for the first year of its implementation, addressing the malnutrition among the first 500 children-beneficiaries in BARMM will start before the end of 2022.
“We’re happy that the first to actually sponsor is Erceflora as a corporate donor,” Muyot said, while adding that they are working also for the same initiative with one municipality in Eastern Samar within the year with the support from individual donors pooling funds together reaching to P8 million. “We still have a long way to go, but if we can show that this can work as very cost-efficient that when we bring it down to the families not only as a dole-out but also to make them conscious how important nutrition is for their children, then we will see the beneficial effects.”
“I think, together, we can be part of the solution, maybe not all of the solutions, but that would be the ultimate measure [of its success]. We want it to be a long term [partnership],” Batang Matatag Ambassador Carol Ann Stewart noted of their ambitious multiyear endeavor. “We hope this would be a steppingstone for Filipinos everywhere to continue spreading awareness and maintaining the good practices in proper food preparation and sanitation.”