MANILA, Philippines – After the publication of the story of the Buenaflor family from Isla Puting Bato, Navotas, Rappler received a lot of inquiries on how to reach out to them.
MANILA, Philippines – After the publication of the story of the Buenaflor family from Isla Puting Bato, Navotas, Rappler received a lot of inquiries on how to reach out to them.
Rappler’s Patricia Evangelista, with the help of human rights organization FIAN Philippines, produced a short documentary entitled “Three Days,” featuring the Buenaflors. FIAN or the Foodfirst Information & Action Network promotes the “right to adequate food” and freedom from hunger.
The Buenaflor family usually goes without food for 3 straight days or more. Sleep is the family’s answer to life’s daily challenges. In their sleep, they try to forget the physical pains of hunger and the problems that await them the following day.
Interested donors and volunteers may directly coordinate with FIAN through Kate Atienza, the point person for the Philippines, at [email protected] or via 351-7553.
Interested parties may donate cash, food and water supplies, toiletries and hygiene kits, medicines, clothes, books, school supplies, toys, or any other assistance they would like to share with the Buenaflors or any of the other communities FIAN is covering.
The Buenaflors is just one of the many families living within the congested alleys of Isla Puting Bato. And this community is only one of the many places in the Philippines in need of health and nutrition assistance.
Advocates say, however, that hunger, cannot be defeated through one-time acts; the end goal is not to promote dependency, but to empower communities and enable families to achieve their right to food.
“The absence of a legal framework, within which the right to food may be promoted and protected, needs to be addressed. There are only scattered provisions in various Philippine laws that guarantee certain aspects of the right to adequate food,” Ria Teves, president of FIAN Philippines, said.
Teves stressed the need to harmonize, expand, and strengthen the country’s existing laws that relate to food, such as those involving agrarian reform, agriculture, fisheries, food prices, milk code, and food fortification.
#HungerProject
The main goal of the #HungerProject is to make people realize the importance of proper nutrition, as it can impact not only on an individual’s health but on the entire country as well.
Hunger can be solved and it can be stopped, but first, we have to understand it, its causes, and effects. The #HungerProject serves as a platform for meaningful discussion and informed action.
The project also aims to link netizens and advocates to our partners – concerned local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), national government agencies, local government units (LGUs), hospitals, schools, fellow advocates, and other stakeholders – who can then help readers transform their knowledge and interest into collective and concrete action.