We often hear the saying “it takes a village” when referring to concerted efforts to find an answer to a problem or a solution to an issue. We actually went to a village or small town in Negros Occidental to see how a volunteer program plus a social enterprise cum non-profit are making a difference in the lives of a sample group of 100 children in this town.
First of all, the children chosen are stunted or are short in height for their age. This is the most obvious physical sign of malnutrition. What we do not see but is also proven, is that the brain also is “stunted” and such is a more difficult problem to address.
Negros Volunteers for Change or NVC Foundation is trying to address a seemingly insurmountable national issue by doing their small part through several ways: They manufacture healthy food mixes made from local farmers’ produce, feed them to children enrolled in the program and watch these kids achieve normal height and weight over a year’s time. They conduct feeding programs with the help of other NGOs and donors, and some local government units (LGU) who have put Nutrition in their top ten list of priorities.
It is amazing what Millie Kilayco and her group have achieved through sheer passion, dedication and, if I may say, creativity. When they saw farmers wanting to abandon their squash farms to raise money to migrate to Manila, they bought their squash, dried the vegetable to a powder mix to be used with their original Mingo – malunggay (moringa oleifera), monggo (mung bean) and local rice. Mingo provides a child with enough protein and carbohydrates and is given at one portion a day, everyday, until such weight and height targets are met.
Under a Harvard model, Millie and her volunteers track the progress of the children in this particular town to make a best case that can be replicable around the country. The mothers undergo a quick assessment, get guidelines on nutrition and wellness, see volunteer doctors and if the child and mother are on track, they are given an incentive or a prize of P250 for coming over for check up.
Then, a community pantry is set up where a mother can use P150 of her prize money to get three kilos of rice plus a host of extras like cheese, sardines, margarine, sandwich spread, noodles, etc. from more donations gathered by NVC. What a deal! I would not think twice spending P150 on such a deal. No mother has skipped the community pantry station because it is such a good deal.
Millie humbly explains that her group did not have a grand plan but to just take baby steps in first producing Mingo, then designing a feeding program that they could sustain. Well, they have been to 60 towns and that is not a small feat for a motley group of passionate do-gooders. They have coordinated with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Department of Health (DOH) and have since gotten an FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved facility that makes these healthy meals.
The Management Association of the Philippines (www.map.ph) has launched a project to fight malnutrition and we as members volunteered our time and resources to visit Millie and her facilities. We timed our visit to be able to observe the quarterly meeting with parents under the feeding program. We spoke with mostly young teenage parents, some with five kids at the tender age of 21. These mothers are encouraged to breastfeed their babies from birth to six months, granted they are eating well, of course. After six months, Millie’s group can take over and enroll these children and be beneficiaries of these Mingo meals.
Though Millie’s group can only handle a limited number of programs due to their limited resources, it is a model that is replicable across the country. The importance of proper nutrition cannot be over-emphasized. So we at MAP are asking if this model can be replicated in Luzon and in Mindanao. We are looking for partners who can help set up another facility and make it a sustainable enterprise.
The other good thing that comes out of this project is that local farmers find a market for their produce. So far, Millie uses local rice, local monggo, malunggay, squash, ube (purple yam) and even local Negros cacao for the chocolate variant. She is also looking to have farmers grow Chlorella, an algae that can be used as supplement for growth – an ingredient a popular vitamin syrup uses to make kids grow taller.
Local farmers will definitely have a ready market if such a facility is built in every major island of the country. There is continuous demand for vegetables that NVC puts in driers or dehydrators, then a tested formula combines these ingredients into extrudates that are then pulverized into Mingo meals.