SOMETIMES we seem lost in the flurry of words, but it is clear enough to me that the term “involuntary hunger” is much more real than “perceived hunger”.
It seems that the former is real “felt” hunger, whereas the latter could be “imagined” hunger to some extent.
Knowing that, I felt sick in my stomach when I read that according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS), the number of Filipino families that experienced “involuntary hunger” increased from 9.8 percent in September 2023 to 12.6 percent in December 2023.
In layman terms, it could be explained that many Filipino families have no choice but to go hungry, because they could no longer afford to buy food. That could be because they are not earning enough to be able to buy food to eat, or the prices of food have risen for them to be able to afford it.
One way or the other, that also means that many Filipino families have also fallen below the poverty line, because they could no longer afford the “imaginary basket of goods”.
Although it might sound too simplistic, I believe that a practical solution is for Filipino families to grow their own food in their own backyards, or in community farms that are perhaps owned and operated by them through cooperative organizations.
Towards that end, I am hoping that all local government units (LGUs) everywhere will find good reason to help them with technology, financing and marketing.
On my own, I have gathered enough contacts among agricultural technology providers, enough to be able to help those who will reach out to me.
BETTER MANAGEMENT OF FOSTER CARE
It appears that the government is not so serious about how our foster care system. Either that, or the government is not doing it the right way, and therefore we need to overhaul the whole system.
Or perhaps it is the orientation that is wrong, because Republic Act (RA) 10165 states that the purpose of the law is to strengthen and propagate foster care for “abused, abandoned and neglected and other children with special needs”.
I am saying that the orientation is wrong, because in my understanding, the purpose of foster care is not only for the above reasons, but it is also for all children that are either orphaned or do not have a family home to live in, meaning that they need not be in such “problematic” situations as defined about.
Based on available data as of 2015, there are less than two thousand children in the foster care system, being cared for by less than two thousand licensed foster care families. The lack of updated data is already a sign that the government is not paying enough to this social problem.
Another indicator is that the government spent only a little over 40 million pesos from 2012 to 2015.
I doubt if anyone knows the real numbers, I would say that the number of children that should be put into the foster care system could at least be one million, give or take. Looking ahead, the foster care system should be devolved to the local government units./PN
