Baguio City - Members of the Regional Technical Assistants on Nutrition (RTAN), the technical arm of the Regional Nutrition Committee in CAR agreed during their 4th quarter meeting on December 7, 2016 at the Regional Training Center of DOH-CAR to expand the conduct of pabasa sa nutrisyon among pantawid families based on the positive feedback in the pilot municipalities of Lacub, Malibcong and Tineg in Abra.
One major agenda of the RTAN cum RBATF 4th quarter meeting was assessment of the implementation of the pabasa sa nutrisyon for pantawid families through the feedback and sharing of experiences of the Municipal Links of the pilot municipalities who supervised the conduct of the modular sessions on nutrition together with the Nurse Deployment Program nurses of DOH covering the area during the family development sessions from September to November 2016. These pabasa sa nutrisyon among pantawid families is a project of the Regional Nutrition Committee which was launched last August 10, 2016 with the aim to increase awareness especially among poor families on good nutrition. During the 2016 first quarter meeting, the RNC members highlighted the lack of knowledge on nutrition especially among poor families as one of the identified cause of high malnutrition. They then passed a resolution during the 2nd quarter meeting, for the conduct of the pabasa sa nutrisyon for pantawid families in the three upland municipalities of Lacub, Malibcong and Tineg, three of the municipalities with very high undernutrition .
The Municipal Links shared that geographical location and terrain of the barangays are the common challenges encountered. They needed to cross rivers and walk for hours to reach the beneficiaries and were not able then to carry with them the provided IEC materials. They prepared their own materials using manila papers which were much lighter and easy carry from barangay to the barangays. The NPD nurses also translated the materials which were in Tagalog to the local dialect since most residents of these areas were Indigenous People.
The Municipal Links said that results of the pre-test and post-test showed an improvement/increase in their post test scores compared to their pre test scores. They said that since some beneficiaries are illiterate, facilitators read the questions orally to the beneficiaries during the pretest and post test.
Inspired by the report of the Municipal Links, the RTAN members decided to recommend to the Regional Nutrition Committee to expand the conduct of the pabasa sa nutrisyon among pantawid families in other areas of the region in 2017. As a next step, NNC will convene the technical working group that will discuss details of the next round of implementation for presentation during the first quarter RNC meeting in 2017.
