24 March 2021, Davao City – The BNS Onse officers, together with the NNC XI conducted its first virtual meeting for this year. The meeting aims to update the BNS officers about the current plans, programs, activities, and other relevant developments relative to nutrition program implementation despite the limited physical and face-to-face contacts.
There were several agenda items that were presented and discussed in the meeting. Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Dr. Maria Teresa L. Ungson presented the rundown of the Nutrition plans, programs, and activities for this year in which face to face interactions are still discouraged, therefore activities, even trainings will still be conducted virtually; coordination will continue through phone calls, use of group chats and emails. Aside from this, the goals and objectives of the Nutrition month campaign with the theme: "Malnutrisyon Patuloy na Labanan First 1000 days Tutukan" was also heavily emphasized to the BNS officers to ensure an effective campaign for this year.
NO III Alona E. Teo then presented the updates on the 6 newly approved RNC Resolutions of 2020 1. RNC Resolution No. 5 s. 2020: “Resolution Adopting the National Policy on Nutrition Management in Emergencies and Disasters”; and 2. RNC Resolution No. 6 s. 2020: “Organizing the Nutrition Clusters at the Regional and Local Levels to Manage Nutrition Interventions during Emergencies and Disasters in Davao Region.” RNC Resolution No. 3 Series 2020: Enjoining All Local Government Units (LGUs) to Support the Early Childhood Care and Development for the First 1,000 Days Program through Classifying the Nutritionally At-Risk Pregnant Women. RNC Resolution No. 4 Series 2020: Approving the Extraction of Data on IP Children from Operation Timbang Plus as Regional Baseline on the Nutritional Status of IP Children Aged 0-59 Months Old. RNC Resolution No. 5 Series 2020: Resolution Adopting the National Policy on Nutrition Management in Emergencies and Disasters. RNC Resolution No. 6 Series 2020: Organizing the Nutrition Clusters at the Regional and Local Levels to Manage Nutrition Interventions during Emergencies and Disasters in Davao Region. The BNSs are encouraged to support these resolutions by endorsing these resolutions to local nutrition implementers to formulate their respective resolutions and implement accordingly.
Updates on DSP for Children or the "Tutok Kainan Supplementation Program" were also discussed by PNC Dav Sur Alma L. Cosico. She explained the program’s objectives, updates, guidelines, reporting system, and messages for mothers. PNC Cosico stated the critical role of BNS in the effective implementation of the program. One of the agreements made during the meeting is the preparation of a masterlist of priority groups for DSP.
The updates on the LuzViMin Meeting on the other hand was presented by BNS Onse President Jocelyn Lumaad. She has discussed to her fellow BNS officers the updates and feedback on the schedule of plans, programs, and activities discussed during the meetings. More importantly, she inspired BNS officers to continue with their roles and duties even during a pandemic but are advised to practice safety protocols.
For the BNS Onse Action Plan for CY 2021 (schedule of plans, programs, and activities, especially the Barangay Nutrition Conference) BNS Onse President Lumaad has stated there are no concrete plans for these matters yet due to the ongoing situations and unforeseen events brought by the COVID-19.
There were also updates on the OPT Plus that were presented and discussed during the meeting by NOI Yola Mantua. The updates were mainly about Interim Guidelines and the new version eOPT Tool. Due to the number of queries about how to use the new eOPT Tool, it was suggested and agreed to conduct a virtual e-OPT Plus tool training. Virtual Training is targeted to be conducted on 1st week of May 2021 by batch (one province/ city per batch).
The discussion of the meeting ended with the discussion on the BNS Benefits particularly on how to avail the Survivorship benefits of BNSs. NNC Davao Region secretariat explained to the group that beneficiaries of the BNS should complete the documentary requirements and submit them to NNC Davao Secretariat and the NNC Secretariat will endorse these to NNC Central Office for processing.
The meeting ended with the closing remarks from BNS Onse President Jocelyn Lumaad to her fellow BNS officers and the NNC XI family, in which she stressed the importance of being diligent with their duties as frontliners while being hopeful for the situation to get better soon so that they may be able to meet face to face.
The meeting was attended by the BNS Onse officers and by RNPC Dr Maria Teresa L. Ungson and NNC XI staff.
/YGM
