Mission Phillipines 2010

Les ateliers d'éducation nutritionnelle ont démarré au sein de l'association Virlanie.
Au mois de Mai 2010, deux membres de Nutriscare ont rencontré le staff du programme Mobile School pour travailler avec eux sur les séances d'éducation nutritionnelle envisagées; et leur fournir le matériel pédagogique adéquat.

Compte-rendu de Mme Michel, coordinatrice du programme Mobile School pour l'association Virlanie:

1 – Presentation of the Program

The Mobile Unit is one of Virlanie Foundation’s outreach programs. It has been running since October 2006. It aims at reaching out street children in Manila and promoting their social integration through the provision of three joint components: education, health services and psychosocial interventions.

Understanding the condition of the street children (and their families), there is a need to intervene with some educational, healthcare and psychosocial services at the very areas where they stay. The mobile structure, with a specific street-based multi-disciplinary team of professionals in the three domains, helps to properly address the beneficiaries’ needs. They are full-time workers to ensure the feasibility of the program and to strengthen the team’s motivation to share their complementary skills in understanding the psychodynamics of the street children they work with and determine the appropriate interventions.

The team uses an attractive educational tool in keeping with street children’s transitory life style: a mobile school. The program has its own local curriculum which is different from the one of the conventional schooling system and more suitable to children with a weak background. It focuses on empowering street children (and their families) in making their own decisions by developing their self-esteem and self-image.

The present beneficiaries of the program are located in Divisoria, Manila.

2 – Support from NutrisCare.

The Virlanie Mobile Unit and NutrisCare Association started being partners in 2008 when nutritionists made a first visit in the program. They were directly exposed to the program through fieldwork and interaction with the communities. They were oriented on the program‘s services, especially about its nutrition component. This component is mainly composed of three services: supplemental feeding, weight monitoring and educational sessions on proper nutrition. 

The nutritionists made a survey on the beneficiaries’ nutritional status and assessed the efficiency of the existing services. They kindly offered their support as specialists on nutrition. The two partners agreed to work together on the development of modules aiming at improving the program beneficiaries’ food diversification.

At the beginning of 2010, France Callas, representative of her association, visited the program again. She provided modules and corresponding materials for the Mobile Unit team to use in their educational sessions. One of the main objectives of Virlanie Mobile Unit is to sustain its beneficiaries’ good health and nutrition plays a very important part there.

3 - Accomplishments

Note:

Even if the realia (or food replica) were used several times as materials for activities in the former months, the team chose July, known as the Nutrition Month, to start proper structured sessions on nutrition. Four sessions have already been conducted and other sessions are planned for the following months.

3.1 Organization

The sessions were conducted simultaneously for two sub-groups based on the beneficiaries’ age-brackets:

A - The smaller children aged 3 to 9. Participants: average of 30 children per session; most of them are members of street families.

B - The bigger children aged 11 to 18. Participants: average of 26 children per session; members of street families or children living in squatter areas but also children “off the streets” (living with their peers).

3.2 Objectives and corresponding activities/procedures implemented.

* With the smaller children:

The teacher started with the Concepts summary. The objective was for them to identify the composition of their last meal. They made drawings of their last food intakes, on the mobile school board. They were also given the opportunity to express themselves about their favorite food (fried chicken!). And they enjoyed the action song called “Watermelon”.

►During the presentation of this first session, the facilitator brought out the realia and all their eyes were glued to them. When they saw a new material, they usually clapped or raised their hands and some expressed that it was the food they recently had. They were very excited and, at the same time, curious, as they wanted to touch or hold the materials. Most of them even imagined it was true food and pretended to eat them!

The second objective was for the children to make their own distinction between healthy and unhealthy foods and consequently to value healthy foods. The facilitator introduced three categories of food: Go, Grow and Glow Foods (Note: to make it simpler for younger children, rather than categorizing the food into 7 food groups). She made them guess what each category gave to their body (vitamins, protein, energy…). As an application of the lesson, the children were invited to stand in front of the audience, to choose one material from the realia, name it and put it in the right category.

►They conquered their shyness by raising their hands to express themselves and even volunteered to do the given tasks in front of the other children. The fact that it gave them the opportunity to hold the materials helped a lot!

*With the bigger children:

Note: for that age bracket, it is easier to follow the modules of the NutrisCare Association the way they are. Nevertheless, the facilitator adds some games to develop their motivation. For example: a password relay related to food.

The facilitator also started with the Concepts summary. The objective was to find out the eating habits of children in order to point out the lack of diversification. Participants were asked to make drawings or a list of all the food they had on the previous day. Those are compiled in their respective portfolio (an activity folder). Then they shared their experiences.

►The instruction was not to forget anything. And they attentively complied with that instruction…their answers were definitely honest!

In the second session, they discussed the different groups of food.

They had the choice of either cutting pictures of food from magazines or make their own drawings of foods (fruits, vegetables, etc.) on colored papers; they pasted them on a large blank sheet (Manila paper).

►They were very creative. Some children managed to replicate the realia for their cut-outs to appear good. They were very proud of their work. Some children worked in groups and some preferred to work alone.

They were asked to create their own classification of the foods they eat. They classified foods according to their sources and explained their choice by justification. Then, the participants were told that there was another way of classifying the foods according to their sources. The 7 food groups were introduced.

One objective also was to find out their concepts about the number of meals a day and the meal’s menu. They had a collective reflection about the succession of different meals in a day and the succession of food in a meal.

3.3 Outputs:

The activities helped the team set up the participants’ food profile.

* Most of them eat meals twice a day only (“brunch” and dinner). Their food intake depends directly to their parents’ daily incomes which are not sufficient to meet their basic needs. Nevertheless, some children had only one proper meal (rice and viand or vegetables) per day and snacks composed of junk food most of the time. 

*A few children “off the streets” even admitted that they had nothing but junk food or “street” food all day long.

*Children living in the streets have difficulties identifying healthy from unhealthy foods. They don’t even know how to classify the food they eat. They just take anything in without knowing the harmful effects to their body. During the sessions, they started being aware of their unhealthy eating (and drinking!) habits; they usually do not have any schedule for meals: if they are hungry or thirsty and if they have a little money, any time of the day, they will buy food in the stalls around them in the market. And the stalls are full of cheap junk foods and soft or ‘energy” drinks.

The team realizes that the modules on nutrition can be very effective as it will help our beneficiaries to become aware of and monitor their eating habits. It is very important for Filipino children to know the right amount and kind of food to take every day especially for those children who are exposed to lots of unhealthy foods around them. The topics are very relevant due to the malnutrition issue which is common among street-based people. Educating them further and repeatedly about this topic or issue will hopefully make them understand the essence of it and eventually apply these learnings in their everyday lives.

Lots of thanks for your support!

Prepared by: Noted by:

Ms. Marie-Françoise MICHEL   Mrs. Arlyne FERNANDEZ

Mobile Unit Project Coordinator   VFI Program Manager