BACOLOD CITY – The Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC) has launched a worldwide “Write to Fight Hunger” essay writing contest in a bid to end malnutrition and poverty in the Philippines.
According to NVC president Millie Kilayko, the essay writing contest is open to young writers aged 9 to 18 years old from all over the world.
“It is National Nutrition Month in the Philippines and we wanted to kick off a special project to feed Mingo Meals to more kids,” she said.
Mingo Meals produced by NVC are nutritious instant complementary food made of rice, mongo (mung beans), and malunggay (moringa).
Judges will determine the top five essays. They will then be posted on NVC Foundation’s Facebook page and people can vote for their favorite essay, Kilayko said.
The essay with the most number of votes wins, she added.
NVC will then enroll five children in its six-month feeding program on behalf of the winner, Kilayko said.
Kilayko said NVC will also feed one child for six months on behalf of each of the runners-up
NVC youth volunteers Poorna Chakraborty, a student of the International School of Manila; and Martina Jacinto, a student of Poveda organized the “Write to Fight Hunger” project.
“The two young ladies never even knew each other until they began to work on this project. This is solely theirs, through and through. It all just began when both of them reached out to NVC because they wanted to volunteer,” Kilayko said.
“COVID has prevented us from organizing physical volunteer activities but Martina and Poorna have proven that when hearts want to help, their minds do not stop working until they find a way,” Kilayko added.
Kilayko said participants should fill out the registration form at https://forms.gle/