Online meetings are already part of our new normal and 31 Nutrition Action Officers (NAOs) of Zamboanga Peninsula were able to connect and meet online on 17 September 2020 for its 2nd semester meeting which was presided by the National Nutrition Council (NNC) Regional Office 9 Nutrition Program Coordinator Ms. Nimfa D. Ekong. The agenda of the meeting includes the discussion on the new schedule of the NAOs conference and the 2019 Expanded National Nutrition Survey (ENNS) Result. For other matters, issues and concerns with regards to BNS financial assistance were also discussed as well as the different reports to be submitted.
NPC Ekong in her welcome message thanked the NAOs for taking time to join the online meeting. She emphasized that the said meeting was called to discuss important matters and on top of the list is the upcoming NAOs conference which will be held online on October 1, 8, 15 and 22, while the registration period will be from September 14 to 22. NPC Ekong hoped that the NAOs will find time to attend the conference as this activity will provide them nutrition updates as well as camaraderie among the Nutrition Action Officers just like the past conferences.
Following the advisory on the NAOs conference NPC Ekong gave a comprehensive presentation on the Nutrition and Feeding Practices of Children under 2 & Maternal Nutrition. The results yielded good news for nutrition and health workers as the results showed that stunting among children below two (2) years old declined between 2015 and 2019 from 25.7% to 21.9%, however stunting prevalence remains high affecting at least 1 in every 5 children under 2, and doubles at one year old. NPC Ekong also presented other data of different indicators. To summarize, the rate of breastfeeding exclusively until 5.9 months was low at 35.9% recording at an average of 4.4 months duration.
For complementary feeding, the data results show that more than half of children 6-23 months received timely introduction of complementary feeding at 6 months. However, still 8 out of 10 children 6-23 months were not meeting the minimum dietary diversity and 9 out of 10 children 6-23 months did not receive appropriate complementary feeding based on minimum acceptable diet resulting to poor quality and quantity of complementary foods. It was emphasized that more efforts are needed to improve the quality as well quantity of complementary foods given to children below two (2) years old.
Further, NOI Zhalimar A. Jakaria-Patulada provided updates to LGUs who have already submitted reports like Nutrition Month and Breastfeeding Awareness Month reports. She also presented the status of OPT Plus activity for 2020 wherein it was noted that only the Province of Zamboanga del Sur was able to submit their report to the regional office while the other LGUs are still on-going weighing and encoding stage. Other matters such as the Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS) assistance, BNS identification cards and proposed AIP workshop for the provinces of Zamboanga Del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay were also discussed during the meeting.
Finally, NPC Ekong thanked the participants for joining and making efforts to participate in the virtual meeting. Although being at different places, this did not stop the participants from engaging with each other and to clear out issues and concerns. Virtual meetings are new for some people but we may start considering it as part of our new normal.
AA VI Cielo Katrina M. Mabalot
