La Libertad, Negros Oriental - The local government of La Libertad expands its ARK or Advancement for Rural Kids project this year to additional ten barangays from the original six in the list. This is to ensure that all the twenty-nine barangays in the municipality can participate and benefit from the project. According to its Municipal Nutrition Committee Chair and Mayor, Hon. Emmanuel L. Iway, the project hopes to help families earn extra income and contribute to solving the malnutrition problem in the municipality.  

ARK project teaches fisher folks to also plant vegetable and other edible plants and produce their own foods to consume and generate excess vegetables to sell to nearby villages and towns. This is spearheaded by the LGU in partnership with Department of Agriculture/Municipal Agriculture Office.

The project aims to solve hunger and malnutrition by ensuring food security and improve the income capacities of at-risk families. ARK’s indirect beneficiaries are the children of farmers and fisher folks ensuring their food, nutrition, and health especially in time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Started in 2021 as one of the COVID-19 response when many of the residents lost their jobs, the children-beneficiaries were also taught how to plant vegetables, and the different ways or techniques of planting especially if they do not have any place or land to plant. // ND II Chutsvieka May Pacatang, RND