DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao del Norte --- Bai Tata Hakim, a 23-year-old mother from the village of Makir, faces immense challenges. The frequent clashes in her town have not only disrupted her family's life but also impacted the health of her children, particularly her two-year-old daughter Nasharad.
“At two years and four months, it’s hard to believe that she is smaller than her younger brother who is just nine months old,” said Bai Tata in the local language.
As Bai Tata stays at home to care for their three children, her husband's earnings as a tricycle (payong-payong) driver barely cover the cost of their food, let alone other necessities.
In addition to poverty, her husband has been unable to work continuously because of the armed conflict in their town, which has forced them to seek temporary shelter with relatives or whoever will take them.
“Her (baby Nasharad’s) growth was hampered due to our situation. The frequent displacement of going in and out to the evacuation center has devastated our living and wellness,” Bai Tata said.
The town of Datu Odin Sinsuat in Maguindanao Del Norte has been in unrest since 2022, due to rido (clan feud), political rivalries and/or land conflict. On top of that, Maguindanao has experienced the onslaught of various calamities, especially perennial flooding.
With conflict and disasters exacerbating poverty, scarcity and food insecurity, families – and especially women and children – are the most affected.
According to the Mindanao Organization for Social and Economic Progress (MOSEP), affected families are often deprived of access to health care, family planning services, protection, clean water, sanitation facilities and livelihood opportunities, which lead to malnutrition and various illnesses.
The National Nutrition Council (NNC) said 5.5% of children under five in the Philippines suffer from wasting (defined as low weight-for-height), while a further 26.6% are affected by stunting and 15.5% experience Vitamin A deficiency. In Maguindanao Del Sur province, nearly 4,000 children are considered malnourished.
With families forced to flee their homes and agricultural lands, those like Bai Tata end up being reliant on government “ayuda” or support, which is not enough to support them in the long run.
Fortunately, Bai Tata’s family is able to receive assistance from the Women-Friendly Space (WFS) in Datu Odin Sinsuat, which is under the Resilient Livelihoods Development (RLD) for Women and Youth IDPs in Maguindanao project funded by the Australian government and supported by the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) government, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and implementing partners such as MOSEP.
Bai Tata’s family is a participant of the Positive Deviance/Hearth (PDH) programme being implemented at the WFS as part of the RLD project. It is a community-based and food-based approach with three interrelated goals: (1) reduce the prevalence of malnutrition among children under five years; (2) build local capacity to treat malnourished children and sustain the rehabilitation of children; and (3) prevent future malnutrition among all children in the community. Engaging mothers is crucial to the success of the PDH programme, as they are the primary caregivers and have a deep understanding of their children's needs and challenges. The programme utilizes the WFS kitchens as the “hearth” or fireplace/kitchen component.
Positive Deviance (PD) is based on the principle that some solutions to prevent malnutrition already exist within the community and just need to be discovered or rolled-out to the rest of the community, MOSEP explained. It believes that such local solutions are more sustainable than those brought into the community from the outside.
For 12 days, mothers and caregivers are trained to feed their children - who were identified and referred by WFS facilitators - nutritious meals made from locally-available, low-cost ingredients and food. Together with Bai Tata’s baby Nasharad, the children were enrolled and discharged under the rural health unit’s nutrition programme.
“I learned a lot here, my daughter recovered after (she underwent the programme),” Bai Tata said. “Now I am able to cook nutritious food from ingredients I find around the house. Now that we are back home, we can also use vegetables grown in our backyard.”
To support her family, Bai Tata has also learned to sell cooked food, banana cue and a popular local dish called pastil (rice stuffed with chicken flakes) to augment the income of her husband.
- By Ferdinandh Cabrera
