ICT
PROJECT
“Deterrent Malnutrition among Filipino Children”
‘Safe and healthy life of a child is the investment of the future.’
Arias, Jem Videl T.
“Deterrent Malnutrition among Filipino Children”
I. Executive Summary
Compulsorily including Filipinos, hunger is felt and encountered at most times,
whether occasionally or timely. Hunger is one’s body signal that we have to eat. Eating
is one of human’s survivals. If we don’t eat we feel uncomposed and weak but, once
we've eaten enough food to satisfy our bodies' needs, hunger goes away until our
stomachs are empty again. However, Malnutrition is not the same thing as hunger,
although they often go together. People who are chronically malnourished lack the
nutrients needed for proper health and development. Someone can be malnourished for
a long or short period of time, and the condition may be mild or severe. People who are
malnourished are more likely to get sick and, in severe cases, might even die. Chronic
hunger and malnutrition can cause significant health problems. People who go hungry
all the time are likely to be underweight, weighing significantly less than an average
person of their size. If malnourished as a child, their growth may also be stunted,
making them much shorter than average.
And sadly, many countries suffered malnourishment. And our country, the
Philippines, ranks 28th in the world when it comes to hunger, according to the Global
Hunger Index (GHI). It is also included in the 38 countries that account for 90% of the
global burden of malnutrition.
Every child has the right to proper nutrition; that’s fact The Philippines poverty
and pervasive malnutrition is not limited to families of deprived seasonal workers.
Undernourishment is endemic and increasing throughout most of this archipelago of
some 7100 islands, and is compounded by the prevalence of intestinal parasites and
gastrointestinal diseases which health workers estimate deprive youngsters of at least
5-10% of the nutritional value in food they do consume. This problem is particularly
prevalent in rural villages and city slums where many people eat with their fingers.
According to Save the Children Foundation, 1 in 3 children below 5 years old in the
Philippines are malnourished. A study by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute says
that 26 percent of children up to 2 years old suffer from chronic malnutrition, the highest
number in 10 years.
Malnutrition affects not only children’s height and weight, but also their ability to
think. As consequence, nearly 1/2 of all reported deaths are among infants and children
through age 4, and about 1/2 of the accelerated death rate among those age 5 and
younger is related to malnutrition, compounded by diarrhea, measles, and malaria
which is returning to areas where it once was almost eradicated. 3 factors critically
affect a newborn's survival prospects: the family size he or she is born into; the time or
spacing between the mother's pregnancies; and the child's birth order.
Malnutrition in the Philippines is caused by a host of interrelated factors – health,
physical, social, economic and others. Food supply and how it is distributed and
consumed by the populace have consequent impact on nutritional status. While reports
indicate that there is enough food to feed the country, many Filipino children continue to
go hungry and become malnourished due to inadequate intake of food and nutrients. In
fact, except for protein, the typical Filipino diet was found to be grossly inadequate for
energy and other nutrients. In order to compensate for the inadequate energy intake,
the body utilizes protein as energy source.
The present economic situation of the country further aggravates the malnutrition
problem with about 28 million Filipinos unable to buy food for their children to meet their
nutritional requirements and other basic needs. While it was reported that the health
status of Filipino children improved in terms of the decrease in the mortality rates of
mothers and infants, the rising incidence of infectious diseases such as diarrhea and
respiratory diseases contributed to the poor nutritional status of many Filipino children.
Because of this, the impact of malnourishment to Filipino kids is that they will
have poor performance in education and productivity as children are too weakened or
sickly to attend school or to learn properly; health care costs of caring for those suffering
from nutrition-related illnesses; and costs to society of caring for those who are disabled
and, in some circumstances, their families as well. Malnutrition not only blights the lives
of individuals and families, but also reduces the returns on investment in education and
acts as a major barrier to social and economic progress. Let’s work together and break
this cycle. For the children is the hope for a bright future!
II. Theme and Title
“Deterrent Malnutrition among Filipino Children”
‘Safe and healthy life of a child is the investment of the future.’
It is imperative that we must know that everyone has the right to proper nutrition.
However, not all of us have the chance to have given one. Because we live in the
Philippines, where volatile economic is residing, we often see children on the streets
that are skin and bones, unlike us, who are lucky enough to have the proper nutrition;
lucky enough to have food on our tables three times a day. But even if we live in a third
world country, this shouldn’t hinder those from poor households to be given the right
nutrition they deserve.
If we don’t do something about this, the numbers will increase and we are afraid
that it will be too late. For we know that, if children continue to be malnourished then,
our country will lost its hope. For malnourishment on kids is equals to poor performance
in school leading to loss in economic growth
III. Main Focus
The main focus of this advocacy is that no child will ever go hungry again. We
must give importance to those children living in poverty where they don’t receive the
nutrient they need for the day. Let’s not turn our backs to those children in dire need.
Because our country is impoverished, wars and natural disasters such as
typhoons and earthquakes can contribute to hunger and malnutrition by disrupting
normal food production and distribution. And that’s why there are many malnourished
Filipino children. Malnutrition affects people of every age, although infants, children, and
teens may suffer the most because many nutrients are critical for normal growth and
development. Government and the like should address this immediately and although
there are feeding programs, these are not enough to feed all those children. We must
help one another because we believe that children are priceless treasures and gifts
from God, and as such, it is our conviction that the physical, emotional, psychological,
and spiritual needs of children should be amply and competently met. We consider the
care of the little ones God entrusts into our care to be a very important responsibility.
IV. Reasons for proposing the topic
We chose this topic, “Curbing Malnutrition among Filipino Children”, because
malnourishment on children still prevails in the Philippines. We found this concept is still
a common problem in the Philippines that the government and Filipinos alike have a
difficult time addressing it. And that’s why we want to know the further details about it as
malnourishment is a major health issue, thus why we want to raise awareness.
We also want to promote the right for every child to have the proper nutrition
despite of their economic status. We want to expose this issue so everyone should be
aware of what will happen if we continue to be ignorant, for the government to help and
to fully solve this lengthy problem. We want the people to see that as time goes by,
many children are suffering. We want to give them the opportunity to live a healthy life
and a healthy body to have better society leading to a better world. And lastly, we want
to see our country free of unhealthy Filipino children. It is time to look at ourselves and
take responsibility for what is going on in the world; one child at a time, one family at a
time, one community at a time, building toward a future in which we all feel rich and
contented.
“Proper nutrition constitutes the rights of and what
every child should have…”
