August 10, 2016- “Light a candle in every Pantawid family” is the introductory message of NPC Rita D. Papey to the participants during the orientation on the Pabasa sa Nutrisyon for Pantawid families which also served as the launching of the Pabasa sa Nutrisyon for Pantawid Families (PNPF) last August 10, 2016 at Lucky’s Hotel and Restaurant, Bangued, Abra.
The orientation was attended by eighteen (18) participants who are nurses of the Nurse Deployment Program of DOH, Municipal Links and Social Welfare Assistant of DSWD assigned in the municipalities of Tineg, Lacub and Malibcong. Ms. Candice S. Willy, Nutritionist-Dietitian IV of DOH-CAR facilitated the orientation and she introduced to the participants the nutrition modules to be used in the conduct of Pabasa sa Nutrisyon and also the BIDA Kit and Your Nutrition Guide as additional references.
Pabasa sa Nutrisyon for Pantawid Families (PNPF) is a project of the Regional Nutrition Committee-Cordillera which aims to enhance nutrition education among Pantawid families through additional modules on nutrition in the family development sessions towards an improved nutritional status of children, and other vulnerable groups like pregnant and lactating mothers. During the first quarter Regional Nutrition Committee meeting last February 10, 2016, one of the proposed actions of the body to address malnutrition among the Cordilleran children is the provision of lengthier discussion on nutrition in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program Family Development Session (FDS). This will empower the poor families to understand and give importance to the nutrition of their children and other vulnerable groups.
In the Nourishment Program (composed of package of nutrition services) conducted by DOH-CAR in the four Nutritionally Depressed Municipalities in the province of Abra, it showed that 64% of the underweights were children of Pantawid beneficiaries. Hence, the FDS would be a good venue for enhancing the nutrition education and awareness among poor families towards ensuring good health and nutrition of their children and vulnerable groups.
Core group from NNC-CAR, DOH-CAR, DSWD-CAR and POPCOM-CAR was able to package the Pabasa sa Nutrition for three FDS sessions. Pabasa sa Nutrisyon is an interactive education tool developed by the Nutrition Center of the Philippines (NCP) and which was adopted by NNC for community based nutrition education activities. . The Pabasa sa Nutrisyon modules will be conducted during the FDS of the three pilot municipalities of Tineg, Lacub and Malibcong, all in the province of Abra for the months of September to November 2016. The FDS using the pabasa sa nutrisyon modules will be implemented by the seventeen (17) nurses of the Nurse Deployment Program assigned in the area with the assistance of the Municipal Links and Social Welfare Assistants. They plan to cover 47 FDS clusters consisting of 974 families before the end of the year. These pilot municipalities were selected by the core team based on the following criteria: GIDA area, high prevalence of undernutrition, poverty incidence and number of Pantawid families. RNC-CAR also plans to implement the project in the entire Cordillera next year.
