Tags: Elections
By Anna Valmero
QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA—Little did social worker Arlene Brosas knew that her last visit to Boy — a two-year-old kid from living in a Makati slum—would be the last time she would see him smile.
Boy died of malnutrition, said Brosas, despite efforts of then non-profit agency and now party list group Akap Bata, to feed him and his family with free supplies of Nutri-Paks, a cereal-like mix of cracked rice and ground carrots, beans and other local vegetables that can be boiled and eaten.
The recent National Nutrition Survey indicates that 3 out of 10 Filipino children are hungry and malnourished, with about 8 million children are underweight in the country.
“It was sad that Boy had to die, even after we entered him into our nutritional feeding program. He was well onto his fourth month, but then it happened. Dahil wala akong anak, yung mga natutulungan namin na kids parang sila na yung anak namin so nakakalungkot na mamamatay sila kasi walang pagkain (Even if I don’t have my own kid, the children we helped through these feeding programs have become our own family to us so it’s very sad that they will die because of hunger),” says Brosas, a nominee of partylist Akap Bata.
“Sa mga binibisita namin na lugar yung nanay inaasa sa sabaw at tubig sa maghapon ang pagkain niya para mapadede yung baby (In some of the places we visited, the mother only relies on soup and water for a day so that she can breastfeed her baby),” she narrated.
Despite existing laws that aim to protect children’s rights, Akap Bata nominee Dr. Joy Alacanta says a lot of children still do not go to pre-school while many still die from malnutrition.
“Until now, for example, Republic Act 6972, which provides for daycare centers in every barangay but until now, it is not yet fully implemented. Aside from the lack of classroom, which will house the classes, there is lack of pre-school teachers and underpaid daycare students are not regularized,” says Alacanta.
“Specifically, we aim to revise the salary for daycare workers and to push for the Magna Carta for daycare workers because until now, there is no plantilla for daycare workers. If we can get them regularized and give them a stable salary, then there would be more teachers who would teach at day care centers,” she adds.
“There are 121 laws enacted for children but they are not fully implemented,” she says.
Read more information about Akap Bata on their blog. Photo taken from the group’s Facebook page.
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