Cebu City – In the midst of the current issues on rising human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection cases among males who engage in sex with males and increasing malnutrition rates among infant and young children in Cebu, NNC 7 helps the Cebu Provincial Health Office and the Cebu Provincial Nutrition Committee in their resolve to reduce deaths of infants and children below years five years old, untimely death of mothers, halt HIV/AIDS and improve service delivery network during the Department of Health’s High Impact 5 (Hi-5) Summit on 08 June 2015.

Held at the Cebu Provincial Capitol Social Hall, Cebu City, the summit showcased best practices and other interventions done to serve for the program’s major concentration namely: Maternal Care, Infant Care, Young Child Care, HIV/AIDS interventions, and Service Delivery Network.

It is to be noted that aside from the new making increase of HIV cases in the province esp. in Cebu City, it is also to be recognized that in 2014, the Cebu province had a 8.16% undernutrition rate among children 0-5 years old, claiming the highest spot among the provinces of Central Visayas, NNC 7 thus doubles its efforts in leading local nutrition committees in preventing the malnutrition rate to go up further.

As a contribution, the NNC 7 gave focus on the importance of good maternal, infant and young child nutrition as the best foundation to good health, giving emphasis on the community actions against nutrition such as the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and strengthening of local nutrition committees.

To double its efforts, NNC 7 together with the Provincial Nutrition Committee used the summit as a venue to advocate for the strengthening of local nutrition programs to Local Chief Executives and Nutrition Action Officers who came to the event through the giving of IEC materials and advocacy talks.//NGS