Government must scale up efforts to ensure that no baby and mother would grapple with hunger amid the health crisis, Sen. Grace Poe said.
“Sustained initiatives on nutrition have become more compelling to deny this COVID-19 pandemic a legacy of hunger and malnutrition in babies and mothers,” the senator said as she pressed for continual funding of Republic Act 11148 or the Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act, which she authored.
The law mandates adequate funding support in addressing malnutrition among pregnant mothers and newborn children in the first 1,000 days.
The senator said heightened action must be done to implement the law.
“The babies’ first 1,000 are the time to be seized. Quality early care is a fundamental right we must guarantee for the children,” she said.
The government recently raised warning over the possibility of increasing incidence of malnutrition and stunting of children due to the effects of COVID-19.
To avert this, Poe said children should be at the center of government’s swift initiatives to provide access to essential and often life-saving nutrition services.
Poe said the first 1,000 days are “a time of enormous vulnerability yet tremendous potential.”
“How well or how poorly babies are fed and reared during this period has a profound impact on their ability to grow, learn and thrive,” she said.
Poe also noted the Commission on Population’s report that government health centers have seen a 50-percent drop in people using their services since March, mostly due to lack of public transport, limited clinical staff and reduced clinic hours.
“Mahalaga na maabot ng serbisyo ang mga buntis, nanay at sanggol kahit nasa liblib na lugar sila,” Poe stressed.
For the proposed 2021 budget, the President’s budget message noted that at least P159 million had been appropriated for the first 1,000 days and complementary feeding program. Under the law, the NNC, Department of Health, local government units and concerned agencies are mandated to ensure the delivery of health and nutrition programs to pregnant women and infants in the first 1,000 days.
The babies’ first 1,000 days mark the time recognized by scientific researches as one of the most vulnerable and critical periods in child development.
Poe said the implementation of the law should be maximized to extend the government’s mantle of social protection to the mothers and babies as the pandemic rages on.
