Three out of 10 children, ages 0 to five years old, in the Philippines are suffering from chronic malnutrition and are underweight, under height and stunted in growth. This is according to the Food and Nutrition Research Institute.

This is also the problem which Hapag-Asa, a flagship project of the Pondo ng Pinoy Community Foundation headed by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales and the Assisi Development Foundation, hopes to significantly address.

The Hapag-Asa Program aims to alleviate extreme hunger among poor Filipino children. Its four major components: supplemental feeding, health education, spiritual formation and livelihood.

Since it was launched in late 2005, Hapag-Asa, has “graduated” 6,000 malnourished children and currently enrols 65,000 undernourished children in 37 dioceses nationwide.

As they say, the life of this program is its volunteers.

Some applicants of the UP Chinese Student Association went there yesterday to volunteer and feed these children.