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Friday, March 29, 2024

PFI at halfway mark of malnutrition fight

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PASAR Foundation, Inc. is now halfway through its goal of nourishing the children of Leyte via an ongoing feeding program under Project Yolanda’s “Developing Resiliency in Leadership of Local Schools” or DRILLS, which culminates next month.

PFI, in collaboration with the Department of Education and the local government of Isabel in Leyte, started in August 2016 with about 307 severely malnourished children, 576 malnourished children and 289 students—whose health was on the borderline from pre-school to elementary and high school—as recipients.

PFI is the corporate social responsibility arm of the Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp. or Pasar, the only copper smelter and refinery in the Philippines based in Isabel, Leyte.

Participating schools are elementary schools in Anislag, Apale, Bantigue, Bilwang, Binog, Canandan, Cangag, Consolacion, Honan, ICS, Libertad,  Mahayag,  Matlang,  Monte  Alegre, Puting Bato, Relocation, Tabunok, Tolingon, Tubod, Tabunok and Palompon.

Participating high schools include Isabel National Comprehensive School, Isabel National High School, Matlang National High School and Potingbato Cangag, Consolacion St. Felomina National High School. 

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Pre-schools involved are the Gawad Kalinga SIBOL, Holy Infant Day Care Center, and St. Augustine Parish School of Matlang Inc.

PFI’s monitoring revealed that after December 2016, the number of beneficiaries grew by 7 percent to 1,263, from 1,172 children at the start of the program. 

Severe cases of malnutrition went down by 14 percent with a 27-percent reduction of malnourished beneficiaries, while the status of children with sufficient nourishment went up by 58 percent from the initial statistics.

The project was successful in eliminating severe malnutrition in four public schools–Cangag, Mahayag, Monte-Alegre and Tubod Elementary Schools, the foundation said.  Before June 2017, Leyte is likely to close the gap of poorly nourished children to normal health.

PFI underscored the importance of the program as a means to alleviate hunger in rural areas, especially in Leyte, which is one of the country’s 30 depressed provinces.

By the end of the project, PFI intends to deliver pro-active socio-civic awareness with the conduct of at least two medical missions to participating schools; conduct trainings and seminars on responsible parenthood; nutrition and sanitation, food preparation, disaster-related and emergency trainings to children beneficiaries, parents and teachers.

It also aims to conduct supplementary feeding for 120 school days to the 1,700 target pupil-beneficiaries, now in progress, culminating on the Batang Malusog at Malinis Contest in all participating schools.

In addition, the foundation’s Yolanda program also covers disaster preparedness drills including evacuation and emergency rescue in all the participating schools and providing disaster tool kits to identified evacuation centers and schools.

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