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Undernutrition remains a major health problem among children 0
to 5 years old in ourcountry. One of the targets aligned with the
MDG is that by 2015 the prevalence ofunderweight for age should be
reduced to 13.7% as compared to the baseline of 27.3% in1990. Thus
far, the government has observed a prevalence of undernourishment
at 20.6%in 2008. For this reason, the government and the national
nutrition council is stepping upits drive to eradicate food poverty
and malnutrition through various programs. One of
these programs is the Home, School, Community Food Production
Program.
The program looks at the malnutrition problem as caused by
multiple factors and as suchutilizes a more comprehensive approach
to address the problem. In our country,malnutrition is primarily
caused by infectious diseases and inadequate food intake.
As a result of undernourishment, the physical and mental
development of these childrenget impaired. The poor physical
condition predisposes their child to recurring illnesses asit
doesnt have the full physiological capacity to fight off infection.
In our country, childrenunder 5 years old are commonly afflicted
with respiratory tract infection and diarrhea.These conditions can
easily be treated if children are well nourished. But because
ofmalnutrition, children die as a result of these diseases.
Moreover, their mentaldevelopment is hampered because hungry
children cannot focus on school work andlessons. In the children
are forced to drop out from school because their parents thinkthey
cannot do well in school or they are tasked by their parents to
help in augmenting theincome of their family. This feeds on to the
vicious cycle of unemployment and poverty.
According to the FAO, one of the immediate causes of
undernourishment is recurringinfectious diseases or poor health.
The health status of 0-5 year old children issignificantly
influenced by insufficient health services, limited access to
health care,inadequate supply of potable water, prevalence of
unhygienic practices and poor
sanitation, and poor childrearing practices. These factors can
be compressed to two keyfactors which is lack of knowledge/low
educational attainment and lack of resources suchas facilities,
trainings, and money.
The other immediate cause of malnutrition is inadequate food
intake or food insecurity.According to a study conducted by the
FNRI (2008), Filipinos tend to skip meals, reduceportion sizes, and
sometimes doesnt eat a single meal the entire day because of
scarcity.The inability of the head of the family to provide
adequate amount of nutritious food isinfluenced by average income
of the household, family size, and insufficient foodproduction. The
factors related to the head of the family are key determinants of
foodsecurity in the family. Families whose household heads are
educated are not concerned
with food shortage as they earn more than enough to provide the
basic food needs of thefamily. On the other hand, household heads
who works as a contractual employee suchas construction workers and
other minimum wage earners tend to suffer from foodinadequacy. The
amount required to provide basic food to a family of 5 is around
PHP6000.00 which is two thirds of the monthly income of a minimum
wage earner. With othermonthly expenses such as rent, utilities,
transportation, and allowance of children, aconstruction worker
wont be able to provide adequate food for his family. Another
factorthat compounds the problem of food insecurity is a large
family size. According to theFNRI, food insecurity increases
sharply when family size is 5 or higher. Lastly,insufficiency in
food production reduces the buying power of the peso, increases
food
inflation and contributes to limited food availability for the
family. Low local food productiondrives the prices of food
commodities upward because of the laws of supply and demand.
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In conclusion, malnutrition is a multidisciplinary problem and
the problem tree helps usdistinguish how these multiple factors
come together to bring about undernourishmentamong children 0-5
years old. The solution to malnutrition should be an
integratedmultidisciplinary approach that will address lack of
knowledge/low educational attainment,lack of resources, large
family size, alternative sources of income, and insufficient
foodproduction. It is important to identify these determinants so
that the Home, School,
Community Food Production Program can be evaluated based on how
the programaddressed these factors.
