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| Goldilocks Foundation and Caritas Manila Extend a Helping Hand to Communities |
Since its establishment in 2017, the program, which often encompasses 120 days to distribute food like Vitabread, as well as necessary vitamins and supplements, has helped improve the health condition and the lives of many children.
Aside from this, Goldilocks Foundation and Caritas Manila provide the children’s families with a Family Development Session which tackles important topics on health, nutrition, and livelihood, as well as seminars on proper personal hygiene, health tips, and other useful information essential on the awareness on how to fight malnutrition. During the said seminar, those who participate are also given free medical assistance.
Recently, the second phase of the Vitabread program concluded, garnering an increase in the number of beneficiaries in the communities of Risen Christ Parish and Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage Parish, both in Manila. From 200 beneficiaries in 2017, the program currently has 618 people.
Malnutrition remains to be a pressing concern in the Philippines. In fact, the latest survey of the Department of Science and Technology-Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI), 31.2% of Filipino children aged five to 10 are underweight and malnourished, making the Philippines as one of the countries with the highest number of underweight and severely malnourished children as detailed in a separate study in the 2016 Global Nutrition Report.
The Integrated Nutrition Program spearheaded by the Goldilocks Foundation and Caritas Manila is among the many organizations seeking to alleviate this problem with their vision of making Filipino children stronger and healthier.