Maria, Siquijor – Implementers of the Tutok Kainan Supplementation Program (TKSP) in Maria, Siquijor acknowledged the positive outcome of the program to pregnant women-beneficiaries. Almost all of them delivered normal babies after participating in the 90-day TKSP program. The observation was shared by the health and nutrition personnel directly involved in the program during the Technical Assistance and Monitoring and Evaluation (TAME) visit held recently. According to MNPC Jackielyn Tomimbang, although there were minor problems encountered during program implementation such as delays in the delivery of food commodities, other beneficiaries can’t come to the feeding center forcing the health and nutrition workers to deliver their rations at home, among others, but the sight of pinkish and healthy babies with normal weights delivered by those pregnant women enrolled in the program outweigh those challenges.  

TKSP is a program implemented by NNC together with select local governments with the objective to help contribute to the prevention of stunting by improving the quality and quantity of food, as well as nutrient intakes among nutritionally-at-risk pregnant women and 6-23 months old.

The municipality of Maria is one of the pioneering LGUs that was able to successfully implement the program. They targeted nutritionally-at-risk pregnant women in this phase.

Other inputs from the implementer's side shared with the TAME team mentioned how beneficial the program was in nutritionally supporting the mothers during their pregnancy, as it also created a window of opportunity for the implementers in reaching out to mothers for nutrition education activities, micronutrient supplementation and other nutrition-sensitive services. After the successful implementation, both the implementers and mothers had everything good to say about the program, indicating their willingness to participate in the program again given the chance. // DMO II Gab Flores, RND