Beating Malnutrition

ON October 23-26, my coughing worsened and I was unable to report for work and attend to my Rotary commitments — the signing of the Collaboration Agreement between RCM and Abbot Laboratories, and the RCM Sportsfest at Palms. While I was already feeling a little better on the 26th, I opted to no longer attend the event, considering that physical and sports activities were involved. Indeed, good health and wellness are always staple ingredients to being able to attend to things we are passionate about. This affirms that the preparation to assume the RCM’s Presidency next year includes ensuring one’s physical well-being, as there will certainly be numerous activities and matters that will surely be taxing to the body. Thus, there is now a more urgent imperative to ensure one’s health and well-being to meet the exacting demands of spearheading the Club’s projects and various programs.

The RCM-ABBOT Collaboration Agreement which was signed on October 24 officially marks the beginning of a meaningful partnership between our Club and Abbot to jointly pursue a noble program entitled “Beat Malnutrition”, a program initiated by the Abbot Center for Malnutrition Solutions.

This laudable joint undertaking aims to drive awareness on childhood malnutrition. The key objective of the program is “to and empower community volunteers and leaders and educate children/parents about healthy living and train communities to identify malnutrition in children so they can be referred for treatment and intervention x x x.” The training of community volunteers and health workers will be done to prepare them to serve as frontline educators. Aside from training of volunteers, the program also includes malnutrition screening, which is the screening of children utilizing tools and materials that accurately determine the children’s nutritional status. Finally, the program will pursue nutrition education sessions for impoverished families and children in the designated barangay or community.

A mid-year planning for the Rotary Club of Manila will be jointly undertaken and participated by the current Board as well as the 2025-2026 Directors-elect. This joint planning is truly a step towards the right direction; a worthwhile and helpful pursuit especially that almost all of the incoming Directors are first timers in the Board (except for two). The joint planning session should be able to ensure a seamless transition from one Rotary year to the next. It should also enable all participating Club Directors and Officers to carefully plan and pave the way to continue and improve our on-going projects, especially those that have traditionally been bannered by our Club.

Mabuhay ang RCM!