Errors in malnutrition article clarified by ACF

THANKS FOR the great article “SAM, hunger food alone can’t cure” (Inquirer, 10/21/12) written by Germelina Lacorte. It’s very difficult to get not only our work but also our message across—to raise awareness on acute malnutrition and on ACF’s mission to eliminate it—to the public. We thank Lacorte for helping us advance our cause.

However, allow us to make some clarifications in the story:

1) Under the subtitle “Hearing a voice,” it is stated that “health statistics show that SAM (severe acute malnutrition) still afflicts 7.3 percent of (or nearly a million) Filipino children under five.” It’s not SAM, it’s GAM (global acute malnutrition).

2. Under the subtitle “Peanut butter,” the article refers to the peanut butter-tasting paste as eeZee Paste. This is misleading; there are other ready-to-use-food (RUTF) brands. “Peanut butter” is a general reference made by mothers and parents who are giving eeZee Paste, as home treatment, to their SAM children in outpatient treatment programs (OTPs) and inpatient treatment programs (ITPs).

3. Under subtitle “Vulnerable,” the Maranao Peoples Development Center Inc. (Maradeca) is not an ACF partner-hospital but a partner in community mobilization in Lanao del Sur.

4. Also, IMAM, a health protocol, has not yet been adopted by the Department of Health. (IMAM may not have been officially adopted by the DOH but it has already been endorsed by the National Nutrition Council  and recognized by the DOH’s Centers for Health Developments here in our areas of intervention.)

5. The photo showing water system projects was taken in Barangay Lama-lama in President Roxas town; that of a child with eeZee Paste was taken in from Barangay Datu Sondungan in President Roxas town. Neither of the two pictures is a take from Buda, Davao.

—ROSA MAITEM, liaison officer,

ACF Cotabato Office/Philippine Mission,

Rosary Heights, Cotabato City