The Invisible war on poverty

MANILA, Philippines -  Invisible, a United Kingdom-registered charitable organization, has launched a feeding program in a public school in the Philippines as part of its goal to make impoverished children all over the world know and feel that they need not be ignored by society.

At the launch last month of the feeding pro- gram at the Holy Spirit Elementary School in Luzon, Quezon City, Invisible’s partner for the project, the Ateneo Center for Educational Development, said it is not easy to address poverty but that there are many ways to help address and eliminate it.

Feeding programs are just among what ordinary individuals can do.

“Poverty is a many-hearted monster,” said lawyer Jaime Hofilena, incumbent vice president for Social Development at the Ateneo Center for Educational Development.

Hofilena said despite efforts to slay poverty in the country, there’s always a chance it would resurrect itself because the beast has many hearts, enough for it to keep existing.

During the launch of the feeding program, Ho- filena shared the story of a child he encountered in one of the country’s public schools. The child, he recounted, nearly fainted in school, and upon prodding, confessed: It being a Thursday, it was his turn not to eat in the family, as their parents could not afford to feed all their five children.

The stories are endless as they are varied. In the Philippines, poverty is not just a many-hearted monster; it is also a deadly beast.

Despite robust growth trumpeted by the government, millions die of hunger in the Philippines daily.

The latest government statistics showed that poverty incidence among Filipinos hardly improved despite economic growth. Poverty incidence among Filipinos eased to 24.9 percent in the first semester of last year, from 27.9 percent recorded in the same period in 2012.

Statistics also reveal that poverty incidence among Filipino families showed little improvement, slowing by 19.1 percent in January to June 2013 from 22.3 percent recorded in the same period in 2012.

However, the numbers only show part of the whole picture. In the country’s public schools, hundreds of students suffer from malnutrition.

The good news is that groups such as Invisible are helping to address the problem of malnutrition and the beast that is poverty in the Philippines.

In an interview with The STAR, Invisible founder Adina Belloli said the organization hopes to be able to put 1,000 children under the program, which is good for one year.

“The program is good for one year but we have committed to feeding these children until they graduate from school. Included in the program are livelihood training and job opportunities for mothers of the beneficiary children and nutrition education,” she said.

For this year, the program has 500 student beneficiaries who are malnourished and need proper nutrition but Belloli said the target is to be able to enroll 1,000 children with the help of its global donors and pledges through its website, www.in-visible.org.

The group named the organization Invisible because children in poverty are made to feel invisible by society. Invisible hopes to change that by becoming involved and helping the children be seen and felt by society.

Teri Lindsey, project officer at the Ateneo, explained during the launch that the program hopes to lay a foundation for lifelong healthy eating based on favorable experiences and the acquisition of sufficient skills and confidence in one’s capacity to practice a healthy lifestyle.

The program components include daily lunch meals for 130 days, parent education and spiritual formation, community volunteerism and alliance building for program sustainability.

“The food will be prepared and cooked at the Holy Spirit Elementary School and the program will cover 500 student beneficiaries during its first year of implementation,” Lindsey shared.