Angat Buhay, the non-government organization led by former Vice President Leni Robredo, has formalized its partnerships with three different organizations to implement programs on mental health, education, and nutrition.
On Wednesday, the organization shared on their social media accounts that they have signed a memorandum of partnership with the Negrense Volunteers for Change (NVC) Foundation Inc. for the continued implementation of a home-based, six-month nutrition program for undernourished children five years old and below.
“The program aims to address the problems of malnutrition and undernutrition, especially during the formative years of a child’s growth and development, as well as fill in the gap in terms of the nutrition of pre-school aged children,” the organization said.
It added that children will be fed once a day with Mingo meals which are manufactured by the NVC Foundation. These meals contain rice, monggo, and malunggay as per the recommendation of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) and are available in different flavors.
"All ingredients used are sourced from local farmers. The children’s nutrition status will be monitored at least every 2 months," the organization stated.
"Angat Buhay and NVC will also conduct seminars for the parents and community about proper nutrition and how to provide nutritious food for their children through various means like home gardening of vegetables."
The NGO also partnered with publisher Adarna House Inc. on the release of an updated version of Dancing Waters, a storybook about Robredo.
Adarna House said it would continue to donate 50 percent of the sales of the storybook, written by Yvette Fernandez and illustrated by Abi Goy, to support Angat Buhay.
Likewise, Angat Buhay teamed up with Project: Steady, an initiative of Rock Ed Philippines, to conduct mental health decompression sessions for the NGO’s staff, partners and volunteers.
Initially launched to respond to the mental health needs of Filipinos due to natural disasters, Project: Steady has since expanded to address mental health concerns brought about by the pandemic.
"As of June 2021, Project: Steady Asia has become a part of the Therapeutic Alliance of the Trauma Research Foundation based in Boston, USA," the organization shared.
Aside from Robredo, among those who attended the signing ceremonies were Angat Buhay executive director Raffy Magno, Adarna House’s Asa Almario Montenejo, Project: Steady founder Gang Badoy-Capati and operations director Melinda de Jesus and NVC president Milagros Kilayko and partner Mariel Tolentino.
