Parents are cutting back on food: UN
Source: Sun.Star (Original Article)
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Thursday, June 05, 2008
By Ryan Rosauro
Correspondent
ILIGAN CITY — The United Nation’s (UN) World Food Programme said Wednesday that more parents in Mindanao are cutting back on the food they ate so their children would have more to eat to survive the current rice crisis.
In a briefing here about the current crisis, Valerie Guarnieri, WFP Country Director for the Philippines, said they are worried that poor families especially those in the conflict affected areas in Mindanao are eating only one meal a day into poverty because they are too poor to buy more than a kilo of rice a day.
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Guarnieri said they received reports that poor families are resorting to eating rootcrops or fruits to feed their families.
“We have heard mothers saying they have to cut on their own food intake just to spare food for their children,” she said
In Kidapawan City, a vendor, Rodrigo Villar Bangca, committed suicide after learning that the price of commercial rice have gone up to P54 a kilo.
His widow told the police that she heard his husband grumbling that life is getting harder for poor people like them.
“He has lost hope but I never expected he would kill himself,” she said.
The World Food Programme said a recent study revealed that 30 percent of Mindanao households are skipping meals or eat less nutritional food when the rice crisis broke out last January.
Guarnieri said they are concerned that poor parents would let their children dropped out of school so they can have extra hands to earn money for the family. St George Vertigo Credit Card
“Rice poses the greatest threat …continue reading