NNC-7 reveals blueprint for nutrition improvementFILIPINO children who are malnourished, overweight, obese and short are a common sight in the Philippines, which the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) aims to address by decreasing the rate of malnutrition among children by the end of 2022.
Dr. Parolita Mission, the Nutrition Program coordinator of the National Nutrition Council in Central Visayas (NNC-7), said that this year, the number one in the list of local government units which has the highest rate of malnutrition in Region 7 is Moalboal town in southwest Cebu, while Lapu-Lapu city has the lowest rate.
“So that’s why we held our activity there (in Moalboal) in order to trigger action to promote good nutrition in the barangay level,” she said.On the other hand, Dr. Rodolfo Berame, Nutrition Action Officer of Lapu-Lapu City, said that their efforts to improve the health status of their constituents in the city played great role in their achievement.
“I made (it) to a point that every year we innovate in terms of strategies and activities to improve the health status,” he said.According to Dr. Berame, the local government of Lapu-Lapu has allocated a huge budget for nutrition, which they used to buy milk and one kilo of rice for every malnourished child in the city for 120 days.
“After which we are going to evaluate whether there is an improvement in their nutrition status,” he added.Dr. Mission said that the implementation of PPAN 2017-2022 is their blueprint for nutrition improvement.
Dr. Mission also said that this year they are pushing community mobilization by activating the local nutrition committees.
“So this year we will be pushing what we term as community mobilization where we are to activate more the local nutrition committee for them to identify, analyze the situation, identify the problems, and pinpoint the intervention that would address the most vulnerable sector in the society,” she said.
She also stated that they are continuing to promote good nutrition for pregnant mothers and monitor their health to make sure that the baby is well-nurtured in the first 1,000 days of his/her life.
“Based on our studies, the intervention that we could do in the first 1,000 days (of an infant) is what we call the golden window of opportunity to address (health) problems, especially the problem of being short in height,” she said.
Dr. Mission admitted that malnutrition is difficult to combat, which pushed them to micromanage the problem and engage the barangays for the first time.
“W e want to give the nutritional services at the household level, in a family level so that we could address the problem,” she said.According to Dr. Azucena Dayanghirang, the deputy executive director of the National Nutrition Council, one of the ways that being looked into is to give rewards to local chief executives and local nutrition workers who performed well in promoting good nutrition in their respective locality.
“Nutrition program is not just for nutrition office nga i-implement, but this is for everybody.” Dr. Dayanghirang said.