The Challenge:

In the Philippines, nearly 18.5% of the population is struggling to live on less than $1.25 per day as a result of poverty.

Young girls living in the slum areas of Cebu City, in the centre of the Philippines, are especially vulnerable to poverty and malnutrition. Malnutrition stunts physical development, weakens the immune system, and makes it hard for children to focus in school. A combination of insalubrious living conditions in the slums and inadequate nutrition renders poor children vulnerable to a spectrum of illnesses and adverse conditions such as growth retardation and eye and skin diseases.

Families in the slums struggle to provide their children with daily meals and must rely on the cheapest foods available, which are of meagre, if any, nutritional value; poor families simply cannot afford to pay for the meat, fish, fruits, or vegetables essential for a balanced diet.

The solutions we're proposing:

You can help girls from the slums to attend school and benefit from nutritious daily meals. In addition to daily school meals, W4’s field program offers schooling to severely impoverished girls from Cebu City slums. Parents are given a crucial incentive to educate their daughters: the free meals compensate for the opportunity costs of sending their daughters—who would otherwise bring in an additional income by working in the streets—to school. The free meals also offer a vital supplement to the girls’ diets, ensuring their healthy growth and development.

Help a girl to benefit from daily, nutritious meals at school: your donation goes a long way, protecting a girl from malnutrition and related illnesses, ensuring she can attend school, and offering her a healthier childhood and a brighter future!

Your Impact:

Providing girls with nutritious daily school meals generates multiple benefits: families encourage their daughters to attend school; girls are given a nutritious daily meal; girls benefit from improved nutrition and health; they are able to concentrate in class and perform better at school. In the longer term, improved nutrition leads to better physical and mental development, giving girls from disadvantaged backgrounds the chance of a healthier childhood and young adulthood. Better health and education for these young girls means a better, brighter future for them and their families