Cebu City – Central Visayas gears up for the final rounds of Promote Good Nutrition-Infant and Young Child Feeding (PGN-IYCF) Trainings in its Priority 4 areas of Cebu and Siquijor Provinces, the last of the region’s four provinces to be trained, and vows to continue the program as it has overwhelmingly affected the region’s nutrition status.
With only ten (10) batches left for 2015, the region has allocated nine (9) batches for Cebu province and one (1) for Siquijor province, all aimed to be conducted on the first half of the year, the trainings will be done by the local nutrition committee’s PGN-IYCF trained personnel and will be targeting Barangay Nutrition Scholars, Barangay Health Workers, mother leaders, Day Care workers and community leaders as participants.
The trainings targets the municipalities of Boljoon, Tudela, Poro, Catmon, San Remegio, Tabogon with two batches to be conducted with a mixed group of municipalities from Cebu and a batch from the municipality of Lazi in Siquijor.
Funded by the National Nutrition Council and with local government counterpart usually for venues, the series of trainings that have started in 2007 as part of the then Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program has instigated a positive effect in the region’s nutritional status decreasing Region 7’s malnutrition rate from 7.49% in 2009 (start of barangay roll-outs) to a 5.66% malnutrition prevalence rate in 2013, based on the Operation Timbang results.
Having already completed trainings in the provinces of Bohol and Negros Oriental in 2012 and having accomplished 94% of the trainings for Cebu and Siquijor Provinces, the National Nutrition Council 7 is now pegged to change focus from capability building to monitoring the breastfeeding support groups and giving technical updates in order to continue the program’s effect in the community.
Heavily invested on, the National Nutrition Council 7 now seeks to continue the positive outcomes of the PGN-IYCF program specifically in the promotion of proper and exclusive breastfeeding as well as appropriate complementary feeding and inculcate guardians, particularly mothers with a positive attitude towards proper health and nutrition. //NGS
