Urdaneta pro-poor program to continue

URDANETA CITY, April 23 (PNA) — The city government will intensify its pro-poor programs here to benefit marginal families affected by the soaring prices of commodities.

City Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. said they will continue the milk program of the city government as a strategy to bring down the malnutrition rate among children zero to six years old.

The program aims to provide milk to children of poor families until they gain weight, he said.

The milk feeding program was started some years ago and will be intensified with more children from different barangays to be covered.

"With milk and nutritious food for our children, we can eradicate malnutrition and hopefully abolish poverty," Perez said.

He said aside from the milk, children aged six years old and below need to be vaccinated to safeguard them from certain diseases.

In line with vaccination, Perez said the city government will soon establish a second rural health unit that will exclusively take care of the sick from the western part of the city.

At the same time, the city has increased by some 2,000 the number of families benefiting from the PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corporation) for the masses.

Perez also asked parents of the children-beneficiaries to produce their own food by planting nutritious vegetables in their backyard, so they need not buy from the market anymore.

“I would like to see families become self-sufficient by producing their own food so that they will no longer depend on the market for their food,” Perez said.

With plenty of vegetables raised in Urdaneta, some could be channeled to other towns that are deficient in vegetables, the mayor noted. (PNA)