Low-cost airline Cebu Pacific strengthens its partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund to reach millions of undernourished children in the country.
The endeavor is a part of the global organization’s Change for Good program which accepts contributions from passengers on board flights of partner airlines.
Proceeds contribute to the UN children’s agency’s First 1,000 Days campaign which provides optimal nutrition, from a mother’s pregnancy to a child’s second year of life.
Since July 1, 2016, Cebu Pacific began accepting contributions of all currencies from passengers. The contributions are being used to fund nutritional supplements distributed to poor households with pregnant mothers or malnourished children. A portion of the funds also support barangay-level information drives on nutrition in Unicef’s focus areas in Northern Samar, Zamboanga and Maguindanao.
“We are very pleased with how warmly our passengers are receiving the Change for Good Program. Thank you for sharing in our vision of a better future for our children and in Unicef’s advocacy of uplifting lives through the First 1,000 Days campaign,” says Cebu Pacific president and chief executive Lance Gokongwei.
“Children have the right to survive and thrive. It is important for all of us to pitch in and lift each other up, so that every Filipino child grows up happy and healthy. Your continued support to UNICEF will help make this happen,” says Unicef Philippines representative Lotta Sylwander.
Sylwander explains the transformative impact of these small acts of generosity. “The nutrition received by children from the womb to their second birthday is crucial for their physical and intellectual development. If these children are able to grow to their full extent, they perform better in school and eventually get better jobs as adults.” A healthy and productive workforce, Sylwander says, is key to nation-building.
In the Philippines, around four million Filipino children are “stunted.” These children are undernourished, causing irreversible damage to their health, physical growth and brain development.
The global program Change for Good targets these children by cashing in donations for life-saving materials and services for vulnerable children in more than 150 countries.
Cebu Pacific has piloted the program in the East Asia and the Pacific region and focuses its collection efforts exclusively to Unicef Philippines’ First 1000 Days program.