BAGUIO CITY, Oct.23 (PIA) - - The collective efforts and sustained support to the nutrition program of the nutrition committees from the province to the barangay level help in the reduction of the prevalence of underweight among preschool children.
This was emphasized by Governor Nestor Fongwan during the 2015 Regional Nutrition Awarding Ceremony (RNAC) where Benguet bagged the 2014 Regional Most Outstanding Nutrition Implementer under the provincial level category.
The number of underweight pre-schoolers dropped to 1.76 percent in 2014 from 2.04 percent in 2013.
He cited the continuous purchase of micronutrients such as Vitamin A and iron to augment the supplies of the municipalities; maintenance of the Salt Iodization Project that supplies iodized salt in Benguet and other provinces in the region managed by the Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) and Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS) federations; implementation of the Food for Growth Project through provision of milk to 3,240 day care children in addition to the regular supplemental feeding program of the DSWD.
Other locally initiated programs include the procurement of 23 water purifiers for schools to have an access to safe drinking water; distribution of assorted seeds and fruit seedlings to farmers and schools in support to their food production activities; enhancement of capabilities of BNSs through conduct of BNS congress and training of BNSs and BHWs, and provision of cash incentives by the provincial local government units to the 245 BNSs, in addition to the incentives provided by their municipal and barangay local government unit among others.
Fongwan said that good infrastructure projects are of no use if the people are undernourished.
Other Regional Green Banner Awardees include the City of Baguio for city level, and the municipality of Alfonso Lista in Ifugao for the municipal level.
According to Candice Willy of the Department of Health, this year’s chair of the Regional Nutrition Evaluation Team, the Green Banner Award is given to a municipality, city or province with the most outstanding implementation of nutrition programs.
A local government unit awarded the Regional Green Banner for three consecutive years gets the Consistent Regional Winner on Nutrition (CROWN) Award. The national evaluation team assesses the CROWN awardee annually and if it maintains its status for two consecutive years, it gets evaluated for the Nutrition Honor Award, she added.
The NHA is the highest award given by the National Nutrition Council to outstanding performers that sustained its position as regional best in a specific category for six years and has passed the 98% passing score in the last year of assessment. NHA awardees belong to the “hall of fame”.
In the Cordillera, the hall of famers are Kapangan, Benguet in 1998, Kiangan, Ifugao in 2002 and Ifugao province in 2014. (JDP/MAWC – PIA CAR) Maria Aprila Cruz