MANILA, Philippines?Starting next school year, the Department of Education (DepEd) will include the importance and benefits of breastfeeding in its curriculum for elementary and high school students, according to Education Secretary Jesli Lapus.

Lapus said the importance of breastfeeding will be taught under Edukasyong Pantahan at Pangkabuhayan for elementary students and incorporated in Home Economics for secondary pupils as part of the National Plan of Action on Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF).

?Breastfeeding must be taken seriously because it addresses many societal issues such as food security, preventive medicine, ecology, economy, women empowerment, love and faith,? Lapus said.

Lapus and Dr. Elvira L. Henares-Esguerra, director of Children for Breastfeeding Inc. (CfB), a nongovernment organization, recently signed an agreement to push for the IYCF and the inclusion of breastfeeding in the curriculums.

The campaign will tap the following role models: Mikaela Fudolig, who at 16 became the youngest summa cum laude graduate of University of the Philippines Batch 2007; Sierra Isabelle A. Castillo, a UP college scholar and a UP Singing Ambassadors? soprano; and the Tagala Brothers known collectively as Vegetarian, Voices and Violins.

All were breastfed from birth.

They will be joined by Susan Roth, a German doctor who has made the Philippines her home. Roth has breastfed her two children in tandem from birth to the present.

The breastfeeding policy is part of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s hunger mitigation campaign because it is the most ?far-reaching and cheapest strategy for the alleviation of poverty.?

?Breast milk, studies confirm, ensures the life-long health and well-being, emotional stability and intellectual development of future generations,? Lapus said.

?We will also mobilize our school health and nutrition personnel in communicating the importance of IYCF and breastfeeding to students, teachers and parents,? he added.

Henares-Esguerra said her NGO is promoting a campaign on ?The Seven Acts of Kindness? to instill social consciousness and responsibility in young children to provide family support to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.

?The Seven Acts of Kindness reflect the major issues that breastfeeding addresses: Food security, potent medicine, economy, ecology, empowerment, love and faith. To symbolize these seven issues, children are encouraged to perform acts of kindness for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers,? the CfB said in its website, Breastfeeding Philippines.

In collaboration with the DepEd, CfB will conduct advocacy seminars for teachers this summer. It will prepare instructional materials which will be used next school year.

DepEd and the CfB will also celebrate National Breastfeeding Awareness Month every August and World Breastfeeding Week on Aug. 1-7 in all public schools in accordance with Presidential Proclamation 1113.