Operation Timbang Plus (OPT Plus) is a mass measurement of preschool children aged 0-59 months old in a community, it is conducted annually particularly within the first quarter, by the OPT Plus team. The OPT determines the prevalence of malnutrition at the barangay level for assessment, planning and monitoring by the Barangay Nutrition Committee. Further, it identifies and quantifies underweight, stunted, wasted, and overweight preschoolers in need of immediate assistance; to help in prioritizing of children, families, and communities; to provide basis for monitoring and evaluating effectiveness of nutrition interventions and programs.

The Local Government Unit of General Santos City through the City Nutrition Office together with National Nutrition Council (NNC) XII conducted an orientation on Operation Timbang Plus to 15 Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS), four (4) Barangay Health Aides (BHA) and three (3) Barangay Nutrition Committee (BNC) encoder at Inasal de Cebu, General Santos City on December 13, 2021.

The purpose of the activity is to prepare the barangay-based workers for the upcoming 2022 OPT Plus annual activity by equipping them on how to use the eOPT tool and informing them on its salient features. The updated eOPT tool will help the nutrition workers record, interpret, and summarize results of the OPT Plus accurately and conveniently. Moreover, NOII Utlang introduced to the participants the eOPT tool and facilitated a mini workshop on the various eOPT tools (Community level, Large Barangay, and Acute Malnutrition Tools).

Community nutrition assessment is the most practical method of obtaining an overview of the nutrition situation of a given community. Hence, using the standard anthropometric tools for the weight and height taking and consolidated in the electronic OPT tool will provide a true picture of nutrition status, allowing scaled up nutrition interventions to be developed to combat malnutrition.(NOIIUtlang/NOIIIFlores/RNPCLaquihon)