Cebu City - The year 2022 marks the resumption of the face-to-face monitoring of the Regional Nutrition Committee of its Urban Gardening Project located at Sitio Mahayahay, Barangay Apas, Cebu City. This urban garden was launched in 2016 as a project of the Regional Nutrition Council to showcase a nutrition-sensitive intervention. As the pandemic hit in 2020 and gatherings have been prohibited, the garden was left unmonitored.
Now with restrictions easing and holding of in-person meetings permitted while observing the safety protocols, the RNC–TWG members are back on their feet’s again as they visited Sitio Mahayahay on 28 July 2022, to take a closer look of the urban garden.
The monitoring team was headed by the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) – Cebu Chapter with Dr. Joseph Stephen A. Descallar, PNA Region VII Governor on the helm. Also present to check the state of the garden were the TWG members from DA7, DILG7, DepEd7, DOLE7, DOST7, PAN–Cebu Chapter, World Vision– Cebu, and FEED the Children–Cebu. Also, to extend their aid to this project was the Cebu City Agriculture Office.
The different association leaders of Barangay Apas joined the monitoring as well to answer the questions of the TWG team about the status of the garden and what are the first steps needed to revitalize it. Hon. Rebecca C. Flordeliz, Chair Committee on Health and Education in Barangay Apas and Vice–President of the Alliance of Barangay Apas Community Association (ABACA), offered her assistance and helped suggest the immediate action points that the RNC–TWG could do for the garden.
The dedication of Barangay Apas and the ABACA to provide healthier food options and accessibility to food insecure residents could not go unnoticed. To be able to keep the garden alive as it had undergone a pandemic, a typhoon, and the death of its main caretaker is a trait that we all could take home and instill amongst ourselves.
It doesn’t take much to start the change that we want to see. All it takes is a brave soul to put in the work; and that brave soul’s effect will soon domino to others to do the same. With the leadership of PNA and in partnership with ABACA and the Cebu City Agriculture Office, the RNC–TWG hopes that Sitio Mahayahay’s urban garden will soon grow and thrive and be an example for all other sitios in Barangay Apas to establish their own home gardens in an urban jungle. // ND II Mary Carmeli Garrovillo, RND
