With a shared vision to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in the country, the National Nutrition Council graced the Save the Children Philippines’ 1st Save the Children Media Awards on November 25, 2015 at the PETA Theatre in Quezon City.

With this year’s theme, “Uncovering Child Hunger and Malnutrition in the Philippines,” the event is one of the key activities of Save the Children Philippines’ campaign against child hunger and malnutrition, entitled “Lahat Dapat.” This is the organization’s way of recognizing outstanding and existing audio-visual and print materials dedicated to presenting child hunger and malnutrition in the Philippines as an alarming concern intended to inspire everyone to participate in the advocacy to eradicate these conditions.

 Assistant Secretary of Health and NNC Executive Director Maria-Bernardita Flores served as one of the board of judges in both the article and photography category, in behalf of Health Secretary Janette Loreto-Garin.

ASec/ED Flores also gave an inspirational message to cap off the awards night.

In her message, Flores congratulated the Save the Children Philippines, one of the members of the Philippine Coalition of Advocates for Nutrition (PhilCAN), the coalition of 11 NGOs, which is a member of the NNC Technical Committee, for its initiative of keeping the issue of hunger and malnutrition in the media’s radar.

She also thanked the winners and all those who submitted entries, for their valuable contribution in bringing hunger and malnutrition in the public eye.

Furthermore, ASec/ED Flores encouraged media to continue publishing more nutrition-biased news, feature articles, and multimedia materials, be it good or bad news, to help address hunger and malnutrition in the country.

She ended her speech saying, “This first media awards of the Save the Children Philippines should continue. I hope that our friends in media will continue to support this award and continue to publish more nutrition-biased news and articles. By consistently drumbeating nutrition in the minds of policy makers and our people, we hope to reduce hunger and malnutrition faster and more widespread,”

“Let us work together to inform, encourage, and influence all sectors to help address hunger and malnutrition for the development of our country,” Flores added.

The awards had three categories: article, photo, and short films.

Below is the full list of winners.

1. Article Category
• Most Outstanding Article – “Plenty of food, little nutrition in Benguet” by Fritzie Rodriguez of Rappler
• People’s Choice Award – “National survey: We have many malnourished children” by David Bryan Lozada of Rappler

2. Photo Category
• Most Outstanding Photograph – “Silent Emergency” by Veejay Villafranca of worldpolicy.org
• People’s Choice Award – “Mangaon Ta” by Frances Mae Canda of Community-Based Health Program-NGO

3. Special Citations for Short Films/Audio Visual Materials
• Outstanding Online Video Feature – “We Can Stop Hunger” by Tom Estrera III and Patricia Evangelista of Rappler
• Outstanding News Documentary – “Mga Anak ng Pugad Lawin” by Kara David of I-witness, GMA 7