A personal adversity inspires a nationwide advocacy
MANILA, Philippines - When Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Jun Jun” Binay presided over 200 nursing mothers from five barangays during a milk-letting activity at the Cembo Health Center (the most recent of the ongoing initiative), it was not only a way of honoring his late wife Kennely Ann Lacia-Binay who passed away due to complications during childbirth; nor was it a symbol of his support for National Breastfeeding Month.
It is part of a solution to a grave concern that he has been advocating since his days as a councilor. “There are many other parents who’ve had to go through the same difficulties as I have,” says Mayor Binay. “The mother’s milk is the child’s lifeline; the first source of nutrition, what can be more important to a newborn’s survival than that? In unfortunate situations where the mother is unable to provide breast milk, it is the children who suffer the most.”
The enormity of this problem and the lack of resources was made clear to Binay when he found out that there was only one type of milk — a powdered formula kind — given to children, including babies, at the Department of Social Welfare and Development NCR, when he donated the excess mother’s milk collected for his own daughter to George Francis, the newborn left on the Gulf Air plane. “I asked, ‘What do you do when they’re allergic to the milk?’” he said. “They answered, ‘Nothing.’
“It’s a problem that spares no one. It can happen to you regardless of who you are or what your status is in life,” Binay pointed out. “Knowing that, encountering others who share the same experience, I felt it was a call of duty that I do something about it. The need is there and must be addressed directly.”
To do so, the mayor envisioned the creation of a Milk Bank in Makati — the first-ever facility to be run by a local government unit. He sought professional help and formed a team comprised of research experts, medical consultants and engineers, and with the involvement of city health officer Dr. Ma. Lourdes Salud, eventually set up a test pilot project in the form of regular breastfeeding and milk-letting programs.
He recognizes the obstacles that the project may face along the way, but he remains confident that the public will come to fully appreciate the health benefits of breast milk and breastfeeding. Binay has already gotten support from the people and institutions that matter that includes no less than the World Health Organization and the Department of Health.
“Though it was heartbreaking to lose her, it is her memory and spirit that continues to inspire me to move forward,” said Binay. “Fate handed me an opportunity to push myself further and accomplish something that I truly believe will help not just the people of Makati but the entire country as well. Kennely would be proud.”
