1ST PICTURE: MALNUTRITION AMONG CHILDREN

Problem: 
Malnutrition has been a long-time problem for our country even before people were
aware of its existence. Our country is one among the others that is overpopulated and has
a high percentage of people who are on the low part of the society that cannot provide
any source of needs for their families, yet, at the same time they are the class where the
large percentage of birth is coming from. In the Philippines, the rate of malnutrition has
remained essentially unchanged for almost thirty years. Stunting, which causes children
to be underweight for their age, affected one in three children (29%) under the age of five
in 2019 (Acayan, 2021). Adding to this case is the emergence of the COVID-19 which
even worsened the situation for many, as depicted in the picture. The pandemic caused
several families to lose their only sources of income, which resulted in the scarcity of the
basic means of subsistence, primarily, food. Due to the lack of money to buy food, people
are deprived of the necessary nutrients that the human body needs in order to be
physically composed. The persistence of very high levels of hunger due to the pandemic
is widely relevant, which can be proved by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) surveys,
revealing that 31% of families experience hunger after seven months of quarantine, the
highest levels recorded in more than 20 years. The given circumstances for malnutrition

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in the Philippines has been a stumbling block for the community even before the
pandemic, and now, the situation continues to be immensely inflamed with the
repercussions of the pandemic being felt by those who belong in the low-income sector of
the society.

Need of Action: 
Children continue to suffer everyday due to malnutrition. The statistics aforementioned is
proof of how crucial this situation is, and with the pandemic, there is a chance that this
can be irreversible, or even worse, fatal. The death rate increases at the same time, not
because of natural deaths or brutal killings but because of lack of attention and interest
for the government to look for alternative solutions on how to prevent these cases that are
only increasing as time goes by. This situation can also be a serious impediment to the
Philippine economy. Despite decades of economic prosperity and poverty alleviation,
persistently high rates of childhood undernutrition could result in a devastating loss of the
nation's human and economic potential. As the youth will soon take the lead in this
country, it is vital for the government to focus on their well-being as early as now so that
they may be functional members of our society when the time comes. With that said, the
need of action for this problem continues to progress.

Plan of Action: 
Give the people enough resources, specifically the parents, that are part of this
problematic cycle, so that they can feed themselves not only for a week but for the rest of
their lives, even after the government gives them a hand. After the government presents
multiple projects that will pay and give attention to these cases, also after giving their aid,
it is also their duty to give these people sources or knowledge unto which they can make
out of and earn something from and not just rely on the aids that the government will
give. Give them a land where they can plant vegetables or any croppable food, teach the
children early on how to make their own food by educating them where food comes from
and how it is made. Give these people a chance to provide and fend for themselves while
receiving support from the government. 

Quality of Plan: 
The plan that will be actualized will be focusing in two things, first off is to provide
information and share knowledge, and second, is to provide necessary resources for the

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vulnerables to not be hungry and also to start anew. The group is proposing a project that
will conduct a lecture on the relevance of nutrition, furthermore, this lecture will also be a
training on how to tend the crops properly and how their community can start a business
from this that the profit will be for everyone to share. Care packages that contain
nutritious food and crops to plant will be given along with the provided land where they
would be able to plant vegetables. Moreover, special care, treatment, and checkups will
also be done to ensure the health of people involved. Through this project, the impacted
communities will have a wider awareness of how to take care of their bodies, have more
opportunities to provide for themseleves, and so on.

2ND PICTURE: NEW NORMAL EDUCATION

Problem: 
Education has long been the root of numerous problems in our country. When the
pandemic had hit, the system halted for a moment, but the government insisted to pursue
an online mode of learning instead, even though the COVID-19 remains to take a toll on
everybody. Aside from students, educators have also felt the repercussions of this
situation with the number of workload assigned, and the lack of technological equipments
to properly accomplish these tasks. Even if the government did not have enough funds to

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provide those who are not privileged enough to provide themselves gadgets, such as
laptops, that are needed for the new setting of learning, the higher-ups pushed the setup
by the use of masked promises to the community. As can be perceived from the picture,
the laptop on top of the numerous paperwork, symbolizes its crucial role in the online
setup. The education system implemented by the Department of Education (DepEd)
entails tons of work for the teachers, even with the lack of materials and insufficient
salaries; and this poses an alarming situation for the society, if not acted upon. 

Need of Action:
Education is an important aspect in the prosperity of a nation. Without it, a country would
be crippled with incompetent citizens, incapable of reaching its full potential. For a long
time, our educators have been doing their job to provide quality education to our students
despite hurdles such as lack of facilities, low pay grade, and heavy workload—yet as the
pandemic struck, more and more setbacks have surfaced, not to mention the transition
from a traditional way of teaching to incorporating the complexity of technology to the
equation. It is of utmost importance that the burden be lifted from our educators so that
they can provide the best service that they can to our learners, especially in hard times
such as this. Education should not be compromised, especially today wherein a lack of
health professionals were observed as we faced this unexpected catastrophe. In order to
do so, empowering our teachers should be a priority, so that they may continue to hone
the dreams and aspirations of the current generation who will soon lead the country.

Plan of Action: 
The Department of Education (DepEd) needs to implement an efficient system where
educators are easily able to cater to responsibilities that they are entitled to attend to. As
such, platforms and materials that could make their work more accessible and convenient
should be put in place, in order to lessen the burden of their load. All educators in the
country must be provided with good-quality computers or laptops, along with fast
internet connection or data balances that the current system also requires, given that the
new normal education necessitates the frequent use of technological innovations. It shall
also be noted that these computers or laptops to be provided must have specifications that
are actually sufficient enough for the specific tasks and workload that teachers

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accomplish on a daily basis. In addition, a well-regulated online portal where educators
could fill-out and submit documents conveniently should also be implemented.

Quality of Plan:
The administration could start as small as monitoring the funds that are supposedly
allocated for the purchase of laptops or computers, as well as internet connection and data
balances. In line with the 2021 audit case for DepEd laptop fund deficiency, it is proven
that  corruption does not only exists on the government itself but also on its branches
where DepEd rips off the funds that are supposedly to be allocated for the betterment of
our education system. Thus, it must now be ensured that the funds are not being
corrupted or used for other purposes, as this lessens the opportunity for teachers to ease
their difficulties in the online learning setup.  This must be followed by purchasing
laptops that are of good quality and making sure that all teachers must be included in the
intended beneficiaries, which would be possible if the given budget is properly dispensed.
To follow up, other complementary tools that could also lend a hand to our educators,
such as the aforementioned online portal and internet connection or data balances, should
also be provided.

3RD PICTURE: QUALITY OF LIFE

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Problem: 
Government. Our government plays a lot into these equations into the reason why the
quality of life of the people in our country are poor. Aside from the fact that they reap the
benefits that are supposed to go to the people they also make the opportunities for the
people to make amends and to gain a leverage to improve their quality of life, along with
that, they barely make any move that shows they want to improve the percentage even
just by an inch. Even though it is in plain sight that the governments’ actions are not
enough, still, this is not by any means to say that the people should only wait for what the
government could offer before they take a chance to lift up their quality of life, and to
everyone’s common sense, it is only right for the officials to make the first move and for
its people to follow them. It is in everyone’s attention that job offerings here in our
country has a set of requirements that almost all of the people on the lower part of the
society cannot attain due to lack of credibilities that the said job wants from their
applicants, with that, those people from the lower bracket are forced to stay and endure
the low salary payment of the jobs that the could only afford to apply on. Having that
situation, it is inescapable for the people that are heavily affected by the poor quality of
life to remove themselves from that label.

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Need of Action: 
The effect brought by the pandemic in our economy were disastrous. As the pandemic hit
our country, the overall quality of life went downhill, which is a proof of how badly they
are affected by the virus. Thousands of Filipino men and women lost their jobs for plenty
of reasons such as company mandated cost cutting rules or lack of job opportunities to
begin with; many of those with fewer resources and protection, such as employees in
informal employment or in diversified work arrangements, have been the most vulnerable
to the crisis' impacts. It can be reckoned that the impact covid had in the lives of many is
able to get this bad because of the lack of support and proactive actions taken by the
officials to help Filipinos recover.

Plan of Action: 
Aside from band-aid solutions such as temporary cash aids and insufficient groceries
during the lockdown, the government should build programs that shall help low-income
Filipinos bounce back, if not gradually improve their lifestyle, after the pandemic. For
one, the administration should provide a program wherein the state is capable of
mandating jobs to unemployed individuals, so that no one will be left behind struggling
on the streets. Alongside this, the government should make sure that each worker is
eligible for benefits, especially healthcare, so that the Filipino people are still able to
continue living when a crisis such as this comes again. After the devastating effects of the
pandemic, the leaders of today should learn the importance of mitigation while also
taking care of their people.

Quality of Plan: 
Along with attempts to handle the public health emergency induced by the Covid 19
outbreak, the government should also be focusing in providing some job opportunities to
Filipinos, especially those who lost their employment because of the lockdown. Our
group is proposing a project to be implemented by the government that assists and
safeguards incomes, reduces procedures for claiming benefits, subsidies offered that take
on unemployed workers and job search support.  

References:

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Acaya, E. (2022, November 7). Undernutrition in the Philippines: Scale, Scope,
and Opportunities for Nutrition Policy and Programming. World Bank.
World Bank Group.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/philippines/publication/-key-
findings-undernutrition-in-the-philippines
Bautista, A. J. J. I. (2022, August 5). COA flags DepEd purchase of ‘pricey,
outdated’ laptops. INQUIRER.net.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1641318/coa-flags-deped-purchase-of-pricey-
outdated-laptops
The Philippine Star. (2020). EDITORIAL – Leading in crisis
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2020/10/05/2047198/editorial- leading-
crisis
The Philippine Star. (2020). EDITORIAL – Stunted in the pandemic
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2020/10/06/2047427/editorial- stunted-
pandemic
The Philippine Star. (2020). EDITORIAL – Catastrophic
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2020/11/07/2055131/editorial-
catastrophic

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