Tag: Batang Matatag

Erceflora, together with the Manila Water Foundation, Department of Education (DepEd), and the Pasig City Government, is expanding the Batang Matatag child health initiative across 44 schools in Pasig as the program marks its fifth year.

The initiative will bring refrigerated drinking water fountains and health education on gut health and everyday hygiene—including toothbrushing, handwashing, and sanitation—to school communities. The expansion is part of Batang Matatag’s broader effort to promote healthier school environments through sustained community partnerships.

“Batang Matatag has always been about creating healthier environments where children can grow and thrive. As we enter our fifth year, we are looking beyond immediate needs to help communities build the knowledge and habits that can support children’s health in the long term. Through our partnerships, we hope to make these healthy practices more accessible and sustainable for the communities we serve,” Rica Mateo, Erceflora ASEA Brand Zone Lead said.

Five Years of Batang Matatag: It Takes a Village

In July and August, Erceflora brings Batang Matatag to De Castro Elementary School, Nagpayong High School, Pinagbuhatan High School, Manggahan High School, and San Miguel Elementary School to bring health education closer to school communities. Through the WASH paaralan sessions, select student attendees are challenged to be lead and role models of hygiene on campus.

The Pasig rollout began with a ceremonial turnover of WASH facilities and refrigerated drinking water stations at De Castro Elementary School, where more than 100 students, teachers, and parents participated in a gut health lecture.

“Access to safe, clean, and cold drinking water can make a real difference in encouraging our learners to drink more water and stay healthy. When children are healthy, they are better able to attend school, participate, and learn. That is why partnerships like this are important—not only in improving our school facilities, but also in supporting the health and learning of our students,” said Lailani Lucero, De Castro Elementary School Principal.

The program’s expanded focus reflects the growing recognition that child health requires more than access to safe water. Nutrition, gut health, and consistent hygiene practices also play an important role in supporting children’s immunity, development, and ability to learn.

“Providing access to safe water is an important first step, but children also need good nutrition, proper hygiene, and healthy habits to support their overall health. These practices should start at home and be reinforced in school, where children can learn how simple, consistent habits can help protect them from illnesses like diarrhea,” said Dr. Jo-Anne De Castro, Pediatric Infectious Disease expert. 

Batang Matatag therefore continues to equip children, parents, teachers, and healthcare professionals with practical knowledge on gut health and everyday hygiene.

“Healthy habits need to be consistent. It’s not enough to have access to clean water or practice proper hygiene only sometimes. Children need an environment where these practices are maintained every day, because consistency is what helps turn good health practices into lasting habits,” Dr. Jo-Anne added.

Why Gut Health Deserves a Seat at the Table

The program’s growth reflects the scale of its expanding impact.“Seeing Batang Matatag grow from reaching just over 9,000 students in 2023 to 150,000 students and healthcare professionals in 2026 is a meaningful milestone for us. More importantly, these numbers represent more children and communities gaining access to healthier practices and resources. The program’s continued expansion shows what can be achieved when we sustain our commitment to child health and work closely with schools and communities,” Mateo noted. 

For Manila Water Foundation, the collaboration highlights the importance of bringing together different sectors to create healthier learning environments. “Building healthier learning environments cannot be done by one organization alone. It requires the combined efforts of partners providing safe and reliable water, health resources, education, and support. When these efforts come together, we can give our learners the healthy and conducive environment they need to stay in school, stay well, and learn better,” the Manila Water Foundation Executive Director, Reginald Andal, emphasized.

As Batang Matatag enters its fifth year, Erceflora sees the milestone as a foundation for its next phase and its broader commitment to ensuring no child suffers needlessly from preventable and curable gut health issues. “Year 5 is an important milestone, but we see it as a foundation for what comes next. In Year 6, we hope to build on what we have learned and expand beyond Luzon and BARMM to reach more children in need of WASH facilities and gut health education. 

Our goal is to keep evolving Batang Matatag and strengthen our efforts to help prevent childhood mortality caused by diarrhea,” Mateo concluded.

The Batang Matatag Campaign, a joint initiative by Erceflora Probiotics and Save the Children Philippines, has announced a significant expansion of its reach and a new partnership with the Manila Water Foundation.

Launched in 2022, the campaign addresses health challenges due to the lack of access to clean water and proper WASH and hygiene facilities. The Batang Matatag campaign invests in gut health and hygiene education for vulnerable communities, and the partnership with the Manila Water Foundation will help increase access to handwashing stations and water pumps in schools and communities across the country. 

“Investing in our children’s gut health and hygiene is investing in our future. The Batang Matatag Campaign calls on all of us to play a part in building a healthier, stronger Philippines where every child has the chance to reach their full potential,” said Rica Mae Mateo from Erceflora Probiotics.Deeply concerned by the rise of childhood mortality due to diarrhea in the Philippines, Erceflora Probiotics and Save the Children Philippines launched the Batang Matatag Campaign to combat this preventable illness. Launched in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in 2022, the campaign reached over 19,477 individuals in communities and schools, training over 1,000 adolescents in essential life skills, educated 500 residents on child health and nutrition, and achieved a remarkable 100% improvement in health levels within the communities it served.

This year, Batang Matatag expanded its reach this year to the Rizal province in Luzon, completing four hygiene promotion sessions and WASH caravans, and 12 nutrition promotion sessions. The campaign provided 2,500 hygiene kits for students, as well as Brigada Eskwela cleaning kits for 126 schools in Rizal and BARMM.  

Batang Matatag also initiated educating school clinicians and nurses in 68 public schools in Antipolo about the role of probiotics and effective diarrhea management among school children. 

Through this campaign, the communities benefited from newly constructed water pumps and handwashing stations, ultimately benefiting 65,007 individuals in both provinces.  

“We are incredibly proud of Batang Matatag’s impact in its first year, and thrilled to expand our reach to Luzon. With the support of our partners and communities, we are committed to continuing this vital work and ensuring that every Filipino child has the opportunity to grow up healthy and strong,” Mateo added.  

Families are also empowered to support the campaign. With every purchase of Erceflora Probiotics, a portion of the sale will be donated to the #BatangMatatag Campaign to help build more WASH facilities and create more hygiene education programs for vulnerable communities and partner schools in the country. 

Erceflora is available in the nearest drug store or pharmacy, or online through the Sanofi Official Store. For more information, visit the Erceflora website here. 

Children as they say are the future of the country, but what would the future look like if even the most basic rights and needs of children necessary for their development are often overlooked?

Built upon the shared vision of creating better lives for children, Save the Children Philippines and Erceflora Kiddie teamed up to create a meaningful movement that not only aims to better the lives of children now, but to secure their futures as well.

The Start of Batang Matatag

Diarrhea continues to be one of the leading causes of death among children under five years old both worldwide and in the Philippines with an estimate of 525,000 casualties a year. In the country, BARMM ranks second among the regions with the highest number of diarrhea cases among children under 5, with over 14,000 recorded cases in 2020.

The rising numbers and repeated episodes of diarrhea among children is also the result of the persistent case of undernutrition and stunting in the country where children continue to be robbed of their proper health and nutrition.

“About 30% of our children below the age of 5 are stunted, and stunting is the most accurate way to look at the nutritional status of children. If they’re stunted, it means to say they’re undernourished, therefore compromises the optimum development of the brain. That is tantamount to saying that the overall growth and development of the child are affected,” said Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Specialist, Dr. Joselyn Eusebio.

This is the key challenge that the Batang Matatag movement strives to address.

Every journey starts with a desire and an ambition. For Erceflora Kiddie and Batang Matatag Ambassador Carol Ann Stewart, her drive to champion Batang Matatag came from her experience in Latin America and how similar the situation is with the Philippines, where children continue to die from a preventable disease such as diarrhea.

“I think for you and me, we’ve all had diarrhea and you think that goes away, right? But, in young kids, particularly those under 5, if they don’t get the right rehydration, I believe it can link to heart failure and ultimately death. So, even though to you and me it is something quite trivial, but if they’re in a condition where their body can’t handle it, it could kill them and that shouldn’t happen,” said Stewart.

With this ambitious goal, Erceflora Kiddie sought to partner with Save the Children Philippines, an organization that shares their passion for protecting children’s health and nutrition and has in-depth knowledge on communities to help them actualize Batang Matatag.

In its inaugrual year, the movement sets its focus on initially helping 500 kids and their families in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), particularly the Bajau community in Iligan City, and a community affected by conflict in Marantao, Lanao del Sur.

“BARMM is one of the most underserved regions in the country. They are the region with the highest poverty incidence, and due to the ongoing conflict and lack of assistance they fail to meet the necessary developmental milestones,” according to Save the Children Philippines CEO, Atty. Alberto Muyot.

In working with the communities in BARMM, Batang Matatag hopes to start improving the health and nutrition status of children living in the chosen communities before the year ends.

In working with the communities in BARMM, Batang Matatag hopes to start improving the health and nutrition status of children living in the chosen communities before the year ends.

It Takes a Village to Raise a Child

Eradicating childhood death from diarrhea needs a lot of helping hands; and according to Atty. Muyot, an integrated approach to make the movement more sustainable.

“Often times we say it’s the responsibility of the parents, but in the most disadvantaged areas, parents would need a lot of help from community organizations, from local governments, and from other partners,” Atty. Muyot remarked.

Batang Matatag is a movement intended not just for the people, but it is also by the people. Save the Children Philippines and Erceflora Kiddie emphasizes this in their goal of empowering and engaging with the communities to take charge of their children’s health and nutrition.

“We need their collaboration with us to figure out what would be the best way to build the facilities so they would use it and own it and love it and make it part of their community,” Stewart underscored.

Batang Matatag: Moving Forward

With Batang Matatag already in motion, both organizations hope that the movement would be an example that others would follow and join in. They especially expect local community leaders and local governments to take an active role in initiating programs that are similar to what Batang Matatag is doing.

“We hope that local governments could get inspiration from this project to show that indeed even with minimal funding, through education of communities and parents, the health and nutrition status of children can be improved,” Atty. Muyot concluded.

The movement is also anticipated to be a multi-year endeavor, initially starting with BARMM, but will eventually widen their scope and adopt other communities who are in need as well.

To help advance the movement, a portion of the sale of every Erceflora Kiddie purchase will support Batang Matatag.