City of San Fernando, La Union—The National Nutrition Council-Regional Office 1 (NNC1) will be holding the Breastfeeding Is DAbest Online Photo Contest this Month of August 2020 for Breastfeeding Nanays in Region 1 as part of the National Breastfeeding Month Celebration with the theme “I-BIDA ang pagpapasuso tungo sa wais at malusog na pamayanan.”

The photo contest encourages all families with lactating mothers to actively participate and submit their photo entries through NNC-Region 1’s e-mail address or through messenger with the following weekly theme which will commence on August 17:

Week 1: Pagpapasuso ng Ina, Suportado ng Ama at ng buong Pamilya
Week 2: Nagpapasusong Ina sa gitna ng Pandemya
Week 3: Complementary Feeding para kay Baby na Growing 
Week 4: Healthy Diet at Lifestyle Para sa Nagpapasusong Nanay.

This activity is another way of encouraging and inspire mothers especially the lactating mothers to breastfeed their babies as families this time of pandemic are relying mostly on social media as among the source of information.

There will be one (1) entry per account or mother and all qualified submissions will be posted at the NNC-Region 1’s official Facebook page.

The said entries will be posted using the hashtag: #BIDAsiMommy #HEALTHYsiBaby #SamaALL.

Entries will be judged according to Quality and Social media Impact  that includes Creativity (20%), Relevance to the theme / Organization and Execution from instruction (30%), Caption/Description (10%), Number of Likes and Positive Reactions (25%), and Number of Shares (15%) with a total of 100%.

Top three lucky winners will be selected every week and will be posted every Monday in the same facebook page. Winners will receive certificates and cash prizes.

NNC1 is also encouraging participants who did not win in the previous week/s to still join in the succeeding weeks for more chances of winning while the winners from previous weeks are discouraged to join succeeding weekly challenges to give chance to others.

As we all are facing the pandemic situation, all participants in the photo contest shall consider the minimum health standards and protocols in taking the photos and should follow the breastfeeding guidelines.

The deadline of submission of entries will be every Wednesdays at 12:00 in the afternoon and all weekly entries will be posted at 3:00 in the afternoon on the same day and late entries will not be accommodated.

Online voting shall start upon posting and will end on Mondays at 9:00AM.

Breastfeeding is indeed an excellent investment to an infant’s mental and physical development thus intense advocacy on its importance and advantages shall be emphasized to create greater awareness.

Also, appropriate information most especially at the household levels should be provided and easily accessible for the whole family to be informed and be a breastfeeding family champion. /HJAB