Carmen, Cebu - The Rise and Rebuild Foundation, a non-government agency operating in North Cebu launches its Dietary Supplementation Program (DSP) on 15 August 2022 at the Cogon West Barangay Hall, Carmen, Cebu. The Foundation’s DSP is set to benefit more than 60 children in five barangays in Carmen namely Brgy. Dawis Norte, Brgy. Poblacion, Brgy. Luyang, Brgy. Cogon East, and Brgy. Cogon West. Municipal Nutrition Committee Chair and Mayor, Hon. Carlo T. Villamor joined the launching and gleefully interacted with the children while waiting for the feeding to start.
Rise and Rebuild Foundation is one of the members of the Civil Society Alliance of Scaling Up Nutrition in Central Visayas. The Foundation is committed to aiding the need of malnourished children from birth through secondary school in the areas they are operating. They also run a garden center, drill potable water wells, and construct nutrition centers out of bricks created at its brick manufacturing facility. The garden center provides free vegetables for the nutrition centers as well as job opportunity by hiring people from the locality to help them in maintaining their gardens. They started operations in Cebu following the devastation caused by Typhoon Yolanda in November 2013 with the construction of communal bathrooms as their pilot program.
Before the actual conduct of the DSP, representatives from Rise and Rebuild Foundation held a consultative meeting with the BNS of the chosen barangay beneficiaries, NDP Focal Person for Nutrition, NDDP assigned in Carmen, Public Health Nurse/MNPC, and MHO/MNAO on 29 June 2022 to firm up the details of the launching and roles and responsibilities of stakeholders and monitoring of the program.
It is hoped that the 120 days DSP will make a dent in improving the stunting prevalence of Carmen which is currently at 19.33% based on the 2021 Operation Timbang Plus results. With the success of the program, the Foundation will expand the implementation to other municipalities in Cebu. // ND II Geraldine Mae S. Pausanos, RND
