TACLOBAN, Leyte – Five-year-old Jenny (not her real name) held her father tightly during a medical mission conducted recently in one of the towns of Leyte. Her emaciated frame had already caught the attention of people around her.

Jenny is just one face among the many children suffering from severe malnutrition in Eastern Visayas. They do not get enough food or nutrients needed for proper health and development. They are slow learners and have poor resistance to infections that lead to frequent illness or even death.

In 2007, malnutrition in the region was most prevalent in Northern Samar (28.09 percent), the seventh among the country’s poorest provinces. Samar ranked second at 27.01 percent, followed by Biliran (21.55 percent), Leyte (19.06 percent), Eastern Samar (17.83 percent) and Southern Leyte (8.63 percent).

According to the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), Eastern Visayas is one of the regions with “very high” malnutrition. One-third of the children under 10 years old were either underweight or short for their age, it said.

In its 2005 survey, the FNRI said 32.1 percent of the preschoolers and 32.2 percent of schoolchildren in the region were underweight for their age. The figures were much higher than the national figures of 24.6 percent and 22.8 percent, respectively.

The situation was further aggravated by the ongoing fuel and food crises.

Uphill fight

Nutrition officials in the region, however, are not losing hope in their uphill fight against malnutrition. “We need to reach out for support (to) the local government units,” says Carina Santiago, regional coordinator of the National Nutrition Council (NNC).

Santiago says local officials can be of great help in curbing the high malnutrition incidence because they have the authority, funds and manpower. Her office, she adds, has already been conducting advocacy campaigns among the local leaders and she is thankful that some have heeded her call for support.

Most of the mayors, however, have remained uncooperative. Santiago says she has been calling for meetings but only a few local executives attend.

Santiago consoles herself that some governors support the nutrition program.

In Leyte, for instance, Gov. Jericho Petilla is spearheading his own supplemental feeding program in several towns of the province.

Children are given food for at least 120 days and the feeding is extended to those who have not recovered yet, says Gina Gerez of the provincial media center.

Optimistic

The barangay feeding program, she reveals, has already been implemented in at least five towns and will soon be launched in several other towns.

Santiago is optimistic that eventually, all of the mayors in the region will support the nutrition program for it is to their benefit if they have a healthy and productive community.

They can hire permanent municipal nutrition officers, create municipal nutrition committees, support barangay nutrition officers and provide other assistance, she adds.

“It’s our responsibility to tell them that it is their responsibility (to implement the nutrition program in their respective towns), not only the national government’s,” the NNC official says.

In the town of Palo in Leyte, Dr. Clara Rosa Zabala-Brit, municipal nutrition action officer, says she has no problem with the local officials. In fact, she adds, the municipal government has provided the municipal nutrition committee with an annual budget of P300,000.

Parents’ role

What is also very important, she stresses, is the support of the parents of malnourished children. They must not only help in the feeding program but also observe proper hygiene and sanitation, practice breastfeeding and involve themselves in backyard gardening for increasing household consumption of more highly nutritious foods, she says.

What usually happens, she laments, is that the parents, particularly in the rural areas, are only cooperative at the start of a feeding program. Later, they would not anymore show up in the food preparation and feeding activity.

“Sometimes, they have more time chatting or drinking with their neighbors,” Brit notes.

She also notices that many lands in the villages are left idle instead of being planted with vegetables, fruit trees and other edible plants.

Brit says her office conducts supplemental feeding for 30 to 60 days, educates mothers to improve their feeding practices for their children, and advises parents to plant vegetables and malunggay (native horseradish).

She, however, admits that the municipal government cannot handle cases of severely malnourished children, who takes around a year to recover.

In cases of severe malnutrition, she refers the patient to the municipal social welfare and development office, which, in turn, refers the case to the Missionary of Charity based in Tacloban City, 11 kilometers from Palo.

The nuns take care of the patients until they are fully recovered, Brit says.