WITHOUT access to nutritious food and clean drinking water, children across the Philippines find daily schoolwork, physical education classes and homework even more difficult.
The local office of Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland-headquartered Nestlé is urging millennials and Gen Z Filipinos looking to support a good cause to consider supporting its advocacy program that aims to help school-aged children combat malnutrition.
Called United for Healthier Kids (U4HK), the food and drink company said the program has linked up with 10 local organizations with programs on nutrition, water and nutrition education covering various parts of the Philippines.
The following are some of the ways millennials and Gen Zs can help schoolchildren with U4HK:
Participate in a feeding program
One of the easiest ways to get involved is to join a feeding program. Preparing and serving hot meals to schoolchildren brings smiles to their faces and helps them face their school day with a happier demeanor. Some groups conduct daily feeding programs and supplement them with reading programs, a toy library and tutorial sessions. They even have sports clinics, nutrition education sessions for parents, and monthly check-ups available. Volunteers are encouraged to bring in-kind donations of healthy food items, such as pasta, bread, fruits and vegetables.
Turn your love for travel into a force for good
A group provides Filipino children in remote areas access to clean water by providing water filtration systems and rainwater harvesting systems to underserved, remote communities. This organization teaches interested couriers how to set up and maintain the clean water system, and volunteers are then encouraged to bring water filters each to a less-privileged community and share their knowledge with their chosen community.
Help schools grow their own food
One of the ways that schoolchildren get access to nutritious food is through school gardens. A group builds and maintains gardens in public schools. Its volunteers can engage in activities such as designing containers, setting up container gardens and planters and transplanting vegetable seedlings.
Build a school or community kitchen
Some groups build kitchens for communities to complement school gardens. Volunteers and donors can help start a kitchen in their neighborhood and maintain it after it’s been built, setting up cooking instruments, storing ingredients, and teaching volunteer cooks and delivery teams healthy recipes.
Keep diseases away by building water and sanitation facilities
One of the challenges that poorly nourished children have to face is combating diseases that can be found in bathwater or drinking water. The Philippine Red Cross distributes hygiene kits and builds water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools. Volunteers can raise funds to build more of these facilities in schools.
Teach kids about nutrition, water and healthy habits
Some volunteers can conduct cooking classes with parents—teaching them lessons about how to make affordable, nutritious food and how to purify their drinking water. Some volunteers can also help kids learn lessons on proper nutrition and hydration and physical activity through storytelling and arts and crafts.