Wednesday, December 8, 2010 at 04:19PM
Early in the school year it was reported that many of the children were too tired and hungry to pay attention in class. The teacher also noted that some of the school children were rooting through the garbage pit outside to try to find something to eat. We knew when we started sponsoring the kindergarten in the Philippines that malnutrition was a problem in the communities where we would be working. Receiving a text message telling you that a child is crying in the corner because she is hungry makes the situation more distressing and critical. The reality for the majority of children we sponsor is that they do not have enough food to eat on a daily basis. Some of them eat twice a day; some of them eat only once. There are children whose parents beg for food from neighbors and relatives; there are parents who are never sure when they will next have money to buy food. Most parents working with extremely small food budgets will purchase rice which is the most filling food available, as much rice as possible. If it is possible to buy patis (a salty fish sauce) or bagoong (a fermented shrimp paste) with which to flavor the rice they will do so. Fruits and vegetables are scarce. Meat of any kind is almost never available to these children.
What I hadn't realized was that there was a difference between a child who was under-nourished and a child who is malnourished. A child who is under-nourished lacks a sufficient amount of food to eat. They will normally report feeling hunger. Often they present as very thin. A child who is malnourished is lacking the correct balance of vitamins, proteins, and energy sources to be healthy. Children who are malnourished may or may not feel hungry. In fact a person can be over-weight and malnourished - an increasing problem with people in the US. It appears that most of the girls who have been sponsored are under-nourished as well as being chronically malnourished.
As soon as it was possible Her Star Scholars started a Healthy Feeding program for the children at the kindergarten. This provides healthy meals to the children three days a week. The mothers of the girls take turns going to the market, preparing the food, setting up and cleaning up. Also, the families decided among themselves that they would each donate a piece of fire wood each week to help with the cooking fire. On meal days, if a child is home sick, a mother will volunteer to deliver the child her portion for the day. Meals include rice, meat or fish, and at least one vegetable and one fruit. The mothers were given lessons on meal preparation and nutritious diets and many have reported that they can now apply those lessons at home to the extent that their budgets allow.
Is it enough? No, obviously not. We'd like to have food daily for all of the children. There is also a highly nutritious milk powder prescribed for malnourished children that could be served alongside the meal. Ultimately we seek to provide skills training opportunities for the mothers that will help them to earn more and enable them to provide better nutrition for their entire family. In the meantime we will do what we can to see that the children do not go hungry.Thanks to Janet of www.byjanet.net for the picture of the vegetable stand. Janet also sells her work on etsy.com as Solitary Panda.
