Adding vitality to the Filipino child
Pasiglahin ang batang pinoy
With Unilever’s strong re-entry to the foods business in Asia, an opportunity was presented to expand our CSR efforts, focusing this time on undernourished children. As a direct consequence of poverty, a considerable number of Filipino children are malnourished or undernourished. This condition in the early years of children hinder proper body and mental development, directly affecting the mental and physical capacity of the general citizenry in the long term.
Sustainable supplemental feeding
Under this program we aim to establish a sustainable supplemental feeding and livelihood program in selected communities. Together with partner organisations such as Kabisig ng Kalahi, Mead Johnson, and various local government units, the program provides a venue for employees to share their time, knowledge, and talents with the people in these chosen communities usually in areas where we operate. Our other motivation for the program is to strengthen our employees’ commitment to the community and their support to the company’s vitality mission. Under the Unilever Volunteer Program called InLUV (Integrated League of Unilever Volunteers), employees interact with the children through arts activities and deliver nutrition lectures for mothers during their monthly visit.
Increase parenting skills
‘Pasiglahin’ aims to normalize the nutritional levels of children within a span of six months by providing 1 hot nutritious meal a day and by increasing the awareness and skills of their parents. Each project module feeds 30 of the most undernourished children from 0 to 6 years old from selected communities close to where Unilever operates.
Prior to the start of the program, the children are weighed, dewormed and prepared to start keeping track of their health and weight progress. We have successfully completed over 20 sites in various areas in Manila. We are targeting twelve sites on a yearly basis. The program not only focuses on feeding the children but also on their wholistic growth through education, values formation, and the achievement of overall vitality in their lives.
