The National Nutrition Council Region 9 conducted an Emergency Meeting on Tutok Kainan: Dietary Supplementation Program to the Provincial/City/Municipal Nutrition Action Officers (P/C/MNAOs), District/City/Municipal Nutrition Program Coordinators (D/C/MNPCs), and barangay staff of the component LGUs in the Provinces of Zamboanga del Norte (ZDN) and Zamboanga del Sur (ZDS) on 10 March 2021 at 8:30 in the morning via Google Meet.
43 participants from 33 LGUs joined the online meeting. The meeting was called for the general purpose of providing updates and preparing for the launching of the said program in the Provinces of Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur around the third week of March.
Nutrition Officer III Elton Pelegrino presented the NNC Memorandum No. 2020 series of 2020 or the Tutok Kainan Guidelines. He emphasized the general objective of the program which is to contribute to the prevention of stunting among children 0-23 months old by improving the quality and quantity of food and nutrient intakes and utilization of related ECCD F1KD services among nutritionally-at-risk pregnant women and children 6-23 months old in the target Tutok Kainan program areas. He then proceeded with the discussion of the items stated in the guidelines.
ZDN Provincial Nutrition Coordinator Rowence Zorilla explained the Consent and Waiver Form for the program and the SMS Monitoring Tool. Both of which are vital in the pre-implementation and implementation phase of the program. She shared the codes and format of the text message for the local project implementers to send to the system. The monitoring will be done upon receipt of commodities, inspection of commodities, distribution of commodities, actual feeding, follow up, and in case of a delivery during the duration of the feeding program.
The monitoring template, inspection, acceptance, and inventory forms were explained by ZDS Provincial Nutrition Coordinator Marie-Claire Gaas. These forms will be used for the monitoring reports of the LGUs for the whole duration of the feeding.
Nutrition Officer II Joanna Marie Baltazar introduced and explained the Magbitang Table. This tool is used to identify the nutritional status of pregnant women by comparing their weight and height on the weight-for-height reference table based on the age of their gestation. The early identification of nutritional status of these women is critical and will be a basis for early intervention to any imminent nutrition problems that may result in their unborn child. This is in consideration to the result of the study that the nutritional status of the mother before and during pregnancy affects the birth weight of the infants and babies who are born with low birth weight and are known to be at high risk of malnutrition, morbidity and/or mortality.
As concluding remarks, Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Nimfa D. Ekong reminded the participants to provide their preferred date and time, complete address and contact information of two consignees for the delivery of eNutribun in their respective LGUs. She also reminded the participants to send their signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) as this is important for the implementation of the program in their localities. RNPC Ekong thanked the participants for joining the said meeting even if in a short notice. She also emphasized in her message that the Provinces of Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur are fortunate enough to be included in the Tutok Kainan: Dietary Supplementation Program thus should also take serious part in making this program a success.
NO I Cielo Katrina M. Mabalot
