Nurses and midwives of the Rural Health Units (RHUs) and nutrition officers of the province have undergone seven-day training on Promote Good Nutrition (PGN) at Baguio City last November 13-19, 2012.

Luningning Pacudan Rhodes, provincial nutrition officer, said the training included orientation on Infant and Young Child Feeding, Pabasa sa Nutrisyon, Nutritional Guidelines for Filipinos (NGF), and the promotion of eggs and vegetables.

The nutrition implementers were briefed on the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition for 2011 to 2016 which spells out how the country will reduce malnutrition under the Aquino administration.

The plan consists of priority nutrition actions at national and local levels that target families particularly mothers, infants and children who are most vulnerable to malnutrition.

The overview of the IYCF was also tackled to build capacities of local health workers and volunteers on counseling on IYCF and to organize community-based support groups in monitoring the strict enforcement of the Milk Code and to conduct nutrition classes on breastfeeding and complementary feeding.

The Pabasa sa Nutrisyon, a strategy and tool for nutrition workers in communicating proper nutrition among families to effectively improve and control malnutrition, was also discussed.

Rhodes said the said nutrition education approach involves the sustained active participation of women and men in the barangay in the learning process, the local government officials and nutrition volunteers.

The lecturers of the 7-day training were Clarissa B. Juanico of the University of the Philippines, Los Baños, Luningning Rhodes, Calvelina Tolbe of the Provincial Health Office, Tina Ramillosa of LGU Diffun and Clemrylene Joaquin of LGU Aglipay.

Meanwhile, a similar training is also being conducted at the Capitol Coffee Shop here to accommodate the nutrition workers from this province and from Nueva Vizcaya who were not able to attend the training in Baguio City. (TCB-PIA 2, Quirino)