IFUGAO NUTRITION OFFICE

Ms. Corazon Dawong of Ifugao was awarded as LNPC of the Year-CAR during the virtual 2021 Regional Nutrition Awarding Ceremony on October 21, 2021.

“Leadership is service, not position.” –Tim Fargo

Being a leader is about giving service to others instead of being served by others. This is held true for the former District Nutrition Program Coordinator of Ifugao, Ms. Corazon Dawong. For forty-one years, she had worked and served at the provincial nutrition office. She is a leader but she didn’t look at it as a position but as a way to be of service to the people. Her hard works and effort had led the province to achieve the highest award given for nutrition.

Ms. Corazon Dawong, a graduate of Home Economics and Masters in Public Administration at St. Mary’s University, started her work at the Girl Scouts of the Philippines—Ifugao Chapter before she got a job at the Provincial Nutrition Office. Ms. Cora has four children and when her husband died, she had to support her children all on her own. She had to work hard to be able to provide for her family. Juggling work and family is a hard thing especially for a single mother, but she was able to pull through this and had all her children graduate in college.

When Ms. Cora started as a nutrition officer, all she was given was a logbook of the list of barangay nutrition scholars and a paper with the malnutrition rate of the province. Until    today, she can still remember the number written on the paper. With no background of what to do, she went through a lot of trainings to better understand her line of work. She had to establish a lot of things as basis for the documents being used in the province.

Ms. Cora became a mother not only to her family but to all the Barangay Nutrition Scholars in the province as well. She treated them like her family. She trained and guided them to give their best in the provision of service for the health of our children. Since her start of work in nutrition, Barangay Nutrition Scholars from the Ifugao Province are given awards yearly. Some BNS under her care have already bagged some awards not only in the regional level but also in the national level. She is hands-on in teaching the BNS the duties they need to perform.

Over the years, she was able to strengthen the nutrition program in the province. And through the local initiatives of the Provincial Nutrition Council, they were able to come-up with these sub-programs: Integrated Area Development Assistance Program (IADAP), Barya mo Para sa Kalusugan Ko, Tudok Ahin hi School, BNS Mortuary Aid, Search for Outstanding Nutrition Friendly School, Malnutrition Alert Ifugao (MAI), Search for Outstanding BNC, and Adopt a Barangay.

Given a limited budget for Nutrition, they needed to look for other fund sources. Through the initiative of the nutrition office, Ms. Cora looked for funds or grants to aide in the giving of nutritional supplements and dietary feeding supplements to children.

Being the lone woman with only at most two support nutrition aide in the nutrition office did not hinder her to give the best possible service she can provide. She went through sleepless nights during evaluations and consolidation of reports and long and arduous travels to reach the far-flung areas to monitor. She did not just do those for compliance. She did those    because she loved her job and she enjoyed giving her best service to help improve the    nutrition in the province.

With the support of the administrations of the province and the leadership of Ms. Cora, the Provincial Nutrition Committee was able to bag the highest award possible for nutrition—the Nutrition Honor Award. It took a lot of hard work, patience, and years to get the award for the province but they were able to achieve it.

Indeed, Ms. Cora left a great legacy for the province of Ifugao. When she first entered the field of nutrition, Ifugao was one the provinces with highest malnutrition rates in the region. But, as she exited the office this year, Ifugao Province is now one of the provinces with the lowest malnutrition rates in the region.