Singing for our malnourished children
Published Nov 8, 2022 12:05 am
FINDING ANSWERS
Former Senator
Atty. Joey Lina It’s a gnawing crisis the UNICEF has warned about: Poor diet and inadequate nutrition are causing Filipino children to suffer from varied forms of malnutrition leading to their being stunted or too short for their age. “Stunting in the first 1,000 days is associated with poorer performance in school, both because malnutrition affects brain development, and also because malnourished children are more likely to get sick and miss school,” according to the UNICEF’s flagship report, the 2019 edition of The State of the World’s Children. “And this disruption to children’s physical and cognitive development stays with them into adulthood, compromising their economic prospects and putting their futures at risk. Collectively, the loss of potential and productivity has huge implications for the broader socio-economic development of societies and nations. It undermines countries’ ability to develop “human capital,” or the overall levels of education, training, skills, and health in a population, the report stressed. Stunting, either moderate or severe, affects 33 percent of all Filipino children, the latest UNICEF statistics pointed out. And here’s where it gets more alarming. The phenomenon of child undernutrition – which has three indicators: underweight (low weight-for-age, including low birth weight), wasting (low weight-for-height), and stunting (low height-for-age) – is the underlying cause of 95 child deaths daily in the Philippines as revealed in UNICEF’s 2015 Unite for Children report. Health experts warn that chronic undernutrition leads to stunted growth, which is irreversible and is associated with impaired cognitive ability and reduced school performance, as well as poor work capacity and productivity. “Stunting in early life – particularly in the first 1,000 days from conception until the age of two – impairs growth has adverse functional consequences on the child. Some of those consequences include poor cognition and educational performance,” a report of the World Health Organization also said in 2015. “Stunting is largely irreversible: A child cannot recover height in the same way that they can regain weight. Stunted children fall sick more often, miss opportunities to learn, perform less well in school and grow up to be economically disadvantaged, and more likely to suffer from chronic diseases,” the WHO pointed out. The full impact of malnutrition is expected to hit in the years to come when today’s malnourished children survive to become adults. But at present, the ill effects of malnutrition can be seen in our country’s rating concerning the so-called concept of learning poverty which means “being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10.” A World Bank (WB) report last year revealed that learning poverty in the Philippines has reached a new high of 90 percent on August 2021 especially when in-person schooling was stopped due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, the rate of learning poverty in the Philippines in 2019 “was already a high of 69.5 percent.” And a year before, the results of the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) revealed that the Philippines ranked lowest in reading literacy among 79 countries, and second to lowest in mathematics and science. With all the grim data pertaining to malnourished Filipino children, it is clear that urgent action by government and the private sector addressing this gnawing crisis needs to be intensified and more money must be poured into the campaign to fight malnutrition. To raise funds for a massive nationwide nutrition program for our children, a charity dinner concert will be held at The Manila Hotel on Nov. 26 at 6 p.m. Giving full support for the success of the concert is the newly-formed Alliance for Healthy Children (AHC) consisting of civic organizations such as the Rotary Club, Kiwanis, Lions, Jaycees, Midwives group, World Vision, and many others. The AHC will work in tandem with the National Nutrition Council (NNC), the Departments of Health, Education, Social Welfare and Development, and Interior and Local Governments. Performing in the concert are some of the country’s premier music artists like Isay Alvarez, Lara Maigue, and Rachelle Gerodias. Also singing are former press secretary Atty. Mike Toledo and former executive secretary Atty. Salvador Medialdea. I’ll also sing with them in this charity concert for our malnourished Filipino kids who need help very badly. Email: [email protected]
Former SenatorAtty. Joey Lina It’s a gnawing crisis the UNICEF has warned about: Poor diet and inadequate nutrition are causing Filipino children to suffer from varied forms of malnutrition leading to their being stunted or too short for their age. “Stunting in the first 1,000 days is associated with poorer performance in school, both because malnutrition affects brain development, and also because malnourished children are more likely to get sick and miss school,” according to the UNICEF’s flagship report, the 2019 edition of The State of the World’s Children. “And this disruption to children’s physical and cognitive development stays with them into adulthood, compromising their economic prospects and putting their futures at risk. Collectively, the loss of potential and productivity has huge implications for the broader socio-economic development of societies and nations. It undermines countries’ ability to develop “human capital,” or the overall levels of education, training, skills, and health in a population, the report stressed. Stunting, either moderate or severe, affects 33 percent of all Filipino children, the latest UNICEF statistics pointed out. And here’s where it gets more alarming. The phenomenon of child undernutrition – which has three indicators: underweight (low weight-for-age, including low birth weight), wasting (low weight-for-height), and stunting (low height-for-age) – is the underlying cause of 95 child deaths daily in the Philippines as revealed in UNICEF’s 2015 Unite for Children report. Health experts warn that chronic undernutrition leads to stunted growth, which is irreversible and is associated with impaired cognitive ability and reduced school performance, as well as poor work capacity and productivity. “Stunting in early life – particularly in the first 1,000 days from conception until the age of two – impairs growth has adverse functional consequences on the child. Some of those consequences include poor cognition and educational performance,” a report of the World Health Organization also said in 2015. “Stunting is largely irreversible: A child cannot recover height in the same way that they can regain weight. Stunted children fall sick more often, miss opportunities to learn, perform less well in school and grow up to be economically disadvantaged, and more likely to suffer from chronic diseases,” the WHO pointed out. The full impact of malnutrition is expected to hit in the years to come when today’s malnourished children survive to become adults. But at present, the ill effects of malnutrition can be seen in our country’s rating concerning the so-called concept of learning poverty which means “being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10.” A World Bank (WB) report last year revealed that learning poverty in the Philippines has reached a new high of 90 percent on August 2021 especially when in-person schooling was stopped due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, the rate of learning poverty in the Philippines in 2019 “was already a high of 69.5 percent.” And a year before, the results of the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) revealed that the Philippines ranked lowest in reading literacy among 79 countries, and second to lowest in mathematics and science. With all the grim data pertaining to malnourished Filipino children, it is clear that urgent action by government and the private sector addressing this gnawing crisis needs to be intensified and more money must be poured into the campaign to fight malnutrition. To raise funds for a massive nationwide nutrition program for our children, a charity dinner concert will be held at The Manila Hotel on Nov. 26 at 6 p.m. Giving full support for the success of the concert is the newly-formed Alliance for Healthy Children (AHC) consisting of civic organizations such as the Rotary Club, Kiwanis, Lions, Jaycees, Midwives group, World Vision, and many others. The AHC will work in tandem with the National Nutrition Council (NNC), the Departments of Health, Education, Social Welfare and Development, and Interior and Local Governments. Performing in the concert are some of the country’s premier music artists like Isay Alvarez, Lara Maigue, and Rachelle Gerodias. Also singing are former press secretary Atty. Mike Toledo and former executive secretary Atty. Salvador Medialdea. I’ll also sing with them in this charity concert for our malnourished Filipino kids who need help very badly. Email: [email protected]