Improving Children's Nutrition in the Philippines

Micronutrient deficiency is a serious problem for children in developing countries. More than 125 million children in South Asia are at risk for retarded growth, increased illness, and slowed cognitive development because their diets are deficient in vitamin A.

A program supported by a Monsanto Fund grant is helping improve the diets of thousands of children in Wao and Saguiran, two communities in Mindanao, Philippines, where people have historically suffered from micronutrient deficiencies. In 2004, we began collaboration with Helen Keller International, a nonprofit international development agency, to educate local community leaders about nutrition and fruit production.

Helen Keller International first focused on local nongovernmental organization representatives and agents, giving them the information they needed to help local families improve their diets. The representatives taught families how to grow nutritionally rich foods in their own gardens and how to acquire those they could not grow locally, including some nutrient-rich vegetables and fish.

The program includes education in fruit production to ensure year-round access to fresh fruit, and nutrition education to ensure that families understand the importance of different types of food. The group emphasizes that good selection and preparation of food is vital to a diet rich in micronutrients. To help families increase their income, the program also offers training in produce marketing and poultry and egg production.

When completed, the project will have helped to empower 4,800 people from 800 families to grow micronutrient-rich foods and make healthy dietary decisions.

$449,853
The Monsanto Fund is providing a $449,853 grant over three years to Helen Keller international to improve the diets of children and to educate community members about nutrition in the Philippines.