9,136 Maranao daycare learners get food supplies

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Up to 9,136 learners in 405 child development centers in remote barangays in Lanao del Sur benefited from a food dispersal program last week of the Bangsamoro government, to be expanded soon in its five other constituent-provinces.

Radio reports here on Monday quoted BARMM’s social services minister, Raissa Jajurie as saying that regional and provincial employees of their ministry together facilitated, along with local officials, the distribution last week of food provisions to marginalized daycare children in 15 towns in Lanao del Sur and in its provincial capital, Marawi City.

Officials of the Mayors League in the province told reporters on Monday that the food rations that the Ministry of Social Services and Development-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao distributed to each of the children in 405 daycare centers in different Lanao del Sur towns and in Marawi City consisted of 25 kilograms of rice, eggs, dried anchovies, vegetables, brown sugar, dried noodles, flour and cooking oil.

The activity, supported by the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, initially covered the towns of Balindong, Bubong, Buadiposo Buntong, Ditsaan Ramain, Marantao, Maguing, Masiu, Mulondo, Piagapo, Poona Bayabao, Saguiran, Taraka, Tamparan, Tugaya, Lumba Bayabao and Marawi City, the capital of Lanao del Sur.

Some of the daycare learners who received food supplies from MSSD-BARMM are from hinterland areas in Piagapo, whose families were displaced by deadly clashes last month in the municipality between soldiers and members of the Dawlah Islamiya terror group.

A report from the office of Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. stated that local government units in the province helped the MSSD-BARMM facilitate the outreach missions that ministry officials had said are soon to cover five other provinces, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

A Maranao mother of three school children in Balindong, Shamira Alman Saligumba, said her family is thankful for having received food supplies from MSSD-BARMM.

“My husband relies only on farming as a source of income and this food ration is a big help to us, something good for my children, one of them a learner in a day care center,” Saligumba said in Filipino, in a heavy Maranao accent.

Adelaida Mohammad Ali, MSSD-BARMM’s programs monitoring and evaluation officer in Lanao del Sur, said they shall also start this week their daily distribution of hot meals for 40 days to daycare learners in the municipalities in the province covered by their food distribution activity last week.