Like your ordinary house, Balay Ni Ifan continuous to build extensions for itself.
But Balay Ni Ifan is not actually a house. It is how the National Nutrition Council in Region 2 calls its nutrition media advocacy group whose original ‘family’ members are composed of active tri-media personalities who find nutrition information as interesting and as complex as what they churn in daily in their respective media outlets.
‘Ifan’ is the Ibanag equivalent of Juan, as in Juan Dela Cruz who represents the entire Filipino people. The name of the group symbolizes a typical house where the Filipino icon, the Bahay Kubo (nipa hut) teems with all sorts of vegetables which has nurtured him all these years.
“ It was our answer to then PGMA’s Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program (AHMP) to Promote Good Nutrition in Cagayan Valley,” Ma. Gizela Lonzaga, NNC region 2 officer-in-charge, said.
While it was a task force, it is likewise a strategy and a battle cry designed and conceptualized by the media themselves in a two-day workshop called for by the agency. Through radio, television, print and other venues, the media wanted to saturate all sectors in the region. However, due to the ethnicity of Cagayan Valley, the various provinces created a name for themselves for identity purposes.
Balay Ni Ifan, based in Tuguegarao City as the regional center, became Haybol Ni Juan in Santiago City, Balay Ni Angkuan in Quirino and Tribu Viscayano for Nueva Viscaya, all carrying the identity of that ‘nipa hut so very small’ where Johnny lives.
How the concept was called was likewise transported from its original Ibanag mother tongue ‘Ta Balay Ni Ifan, Bisin Mafugaddan” into “ Diay Balay Ni Juan, Bisin Malappadan” for the Ilocano audience while it became ‘Sa Bahay ni Juan, Gutom Mapipigilan’ for the Pilipino advocates. All said, it simply means that at the house of John, hunger can be mitigated.
“The task force virtually unified all nutrition advocacy programs and projects for the region in one roof,” Lonzaga said.
The Balay went on an advocacy frenzy, functioning as what their media outlets demand. Radyo Ng Bayan (now Radyo Pilipinas)-DWPE and Filipinas Broadcasting Network- DZCV in Tuguegarao, for example, started airing nutrition dramas in Pilipino, Ibanag and Ilocano versions, nutrition messages and tips, interviews, features, documentaries and other broadcast reports.
RBC Cable television covers and airs nutrition activities and projects while the print media like the Northern Forum and Northern Digest provide newspaper space for columns, editorials and news releases plus photo stories.
The same is done in all cities, municipalities and provinces in the region.
“The ripples it created was huge that Balay Ni Ifan became popular, so with the advocacies they carried,” Lonzaga, added.
Officially, the media group is called the Balay Ni Ifan Task Force to Promote Good Nutrition in the Cagayan Valley region. To date, there is no NNC activity not covered by media entities because of the presence of the Task Force.
As if that was not enough, the task force went into a novelty projects impressing even the national office; the Nutrition Calesa Painting competition, now on its seventh year. To have a feel of their own task force, NNC asked the members in Cagayan to compete among themselves. It resulted in the first colorful nutrition calesa parade never before seen in the main thoroughfares of the regional center.
The project has become a very nutritious history.
Guided by NNC region 2, task force members usually attend seminars, conferences and other activities all geared toward good nutrition. Today, the nutrition month celebration is managed by the task force.
Only last week, the nutrition ‘house’ opened its doors, including the windows, for other information individuals from other line agencies, local government units, other media entities and other who can help the Balay Ni Ifan.
From an original 12 member-media entities in Cagayan alone, the task force is expanding and has strengthened its hold on social media. While the members are proud of what they are contributing, the NNC in the region is prouder. Why not? It is the only attached government agency in the region which organized a media group and successfully sustain it, all these years for its own advocacies.
Media organizations like the Balay Ni Ifan Task Force never die; they just recruit more and more members to better the nutrition situation in the valley of Juan Dela Cruz.
