1 June 2021, Cagayan de Oro City – The National Nutrition Council Region X and the National Barangay Nutrition Scholars Federation (NaBNS Fed.) Incorporated – Northern Mindanao Chapter organized a Special Meeting last 31 May 2021. The meeting was a combination of online via Zoom and face-to-face at The VIP Hotel, Cagayan de Oro City. A total of 11 officers attended during the meeting presided by Chapter President BNS Flordeliza S. Gonzales of Iligan City.
Nutrition Program Coordinator Gladys Mae S. Fernandez gave her warm appreciation to all the officers who attended the meeting despite the spike of COVID-19 cases. She likewise provided updates to the body, including the 2021 BNS conference rationale, schemes, and participation of Punong Barangays in the said activity. Furthermore, NPC Fernandez shared NNC’s approved proposal on the additional training for BNSs to be conducted by Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to improve their competency skills. BNSs will be granted Barangay Nutrition Service-National Certification (BNS-NC) II after finishing the training. To ensure that the draft competency standards and training regulations developed by TESDA in coordination with NNC are aligned with the needs of the BNSs, an online validation workshop will be held on 4 June 2021. Region 10’s representative is BNS Puribel B. Talaroc, the NaBNS Federation Inc. - Northern Mindanao Chapter secretary.
The main agenda of the meeting were the 2021 Regional BNS Virtual Conference and the federation’s 2021 Work and Financial Plan. Nutrition Officer I Vazamija Therese A. Villasi presented to the body the initial plans for the virtual conference such as: 1) approval of the conference theme; 2) details of the conference; 3) tasking; 4) registration; 5) F1K dance contest; and 6) next steps.
The body agreed that this year’s conference theme will be, “BNS: Tuloy ang Serbisyo kahit may pandemya, KAYA!” authored by BNS Gonzales. NNC allocated funds for the virtual conference, however, the federation agreed to collect ₱30.00 per BNS to cater the prizes, tokens for the board of judges of the modern dance contest and other expenses to be incurred during the said conference.
The NNC First 1000 Days jingle will be used as a music choice for the Dance Contest. Finalization of mechanics is still ongoing and will be shared once approved by the body.
Following the conduct of the meeting, officers are expected to give advance information to their fellow BNSs about the conference. Once the concept paper is available, officers will conduct another special meeting to finalize tasking as necessary, to disseminate contest mechanics once approved, and to conceptualize the draft teaser video of the conference care of NNC X.
BNS Gonzalez presented the 2021 Work and Financial Plan of the organization. Activities identified are the conduct of online meetings, BNS conference, and proposed conduct of face-to-face Program Implementation Review (PIR) in December in Tangub City.
The meeting was conducted to prepare and formulate initial plans for the region-wide conference in accordance to the minimum health protocols. The much anticipated regional conference for BNSs aims to uplift the morale of volunteer nutrition workers as they continue to deliver nutrition services to the households amidst the pandemic. (NO I Vazamija Therese A. Villasi, RND)
