MANILA, Philippines — The non-government organization (NGO) founded by former vice president Leni Robredo yesterday formalized partnerships with three organizations to implement programs on mental health, education and nutrition.
Angat Buhay signed a memorandum of agreement with the Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC) Foundation Inc. for the continued implementation of a home-based, six-month nutrition program for undernourished children five years old and below.
“The program aims to address the problems of malnutrition and undernutrition, especially during the formative years of a child’s growth and development, as well as fill in the gap in terms of the nutrition of pre-school aged children,” the organization said.
Child beneficiaries will be fed with Mingo meals manufactured by the NVC Foundation, which contain rice, monggo and malunggay as per the recommendation of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute.
Angat Buhay and NVC will also conduct seminars for the parents and community about proper nutrition and how to provide nutritious food for their children through various means, including home gardening of vegetables.
The NGO also signed an agreement with publisher Adarna House Inc. on the release of an updated version of Dancing Waters, a storybook about Robredo.
Adarna House said it would continue to donate 50 percent of the sales of the storybook, written by Yvette Fernandez and illustrated by Abi Goy, to support Angat Buhay.
Meanwhile, Angat Buhay partnered with Project: Steady, an initiative of Rock Ed Philippines, to conduct mental health decompression sessions for the NGO’s staff, partners and volunteers.
Initially launched to respond to the mental health needs of Filipinos due to natural disasters, Project: Steady has since expanded to address mental health concerns brought about by the pandemic.
In addition to Robredo, who is Angat Buhay chair, among those who attended the signing ceremonies were Angat Buhay executive director Raffy Magno, Adarna House’s Asa Almario Montenejo, Project: Steady founder Gang Badoy-Capati and operations director Melinda de Jesus and NVC president Milagros Kilayko and partner Mariel Tolentino.