Cebu City – Health and nutrition personnel from 15 Yolanda-stricken municipalities in Cebu attended the training on In-Patient and Out-Patient Therapeutic program organized by DOH-CHD 7 and UNICEF. Dr. Parolita A. Mission, Nutrition Program Coordinator of the National Nutrition Council Region VII in her welcome message during the opening program emphasized the importance of improving the capacities of nutrition and health workers to manage severe acute malnutrition (SAM) cases without medical complications in the Out-Patient Treatment Program (OTP) and management of SAM cases with medical complications in the In-Patient Treatment Program (ITP). Nutrition Action Officers and Municipal Nutrition Program Coordinators in Northern Cebu together with the D/CNPCs of the provinces of Cebu, Negros Oriental and Siquijor took time off from their field activities to be trained in the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition.
Forty one representatives from the municipalities of Bantayan, Santa Fe, Madridejos, Daanbantayan, Medellin, San Remegio, Pilar, Poro, San Francisco, Borbon, Tabogon, Tabuelan, Sogod, and Tudela and Bogo City expressed gratitude for the training and the therapeutic foods to be received despite citing limited human resource as a weakness in the implementation of the program. NNC 7 together with AmeriCares will capacitate the Barangay Nutrition Scholars in nutrition assessment as well as monitoring of identified Severe and Moderate Acute Malnutrition.
Held at Sarrosa Hotel, Cebu City on 17-19 March and 20-21 March for Out-patient Therapeutic Program and In-patient Therapeutic Program respectively, the week-long activity focused on how the community could address the prevalence of acute malnutrition through the support given by UNICEF as well as the necessary knowledge and skills to identify the nutritionally depressed and possible alternatives for special cases such as those in remote areas.
Noted for the limited amount of foreign and local aid in its rehabilitation, Cebu Province relies on the local nutrition committees to implement its Nutrition Rehabilitation Plan. The training was done in time for the distribution of therapeutic and supplementary feeding supplies provided by the UNICEF and the World Food Program. //NGS
