Cebu City - Communication is a two-way process where the message is conveyed between two or more people in the form of ideas, emotions, feelings, and opinions with the aim of establishing a common understanding. Simply put, communication is the process of transferring intentional knowledge and comprehension from one person to another.

It's like a glue that binds an organization. In the nutrition program, communication plays a major role especially in the work of nutrition workers or advocates because one cannot avoid not communicating.

According to the National Nutrition Council’s Nutrition Program Management e-Learning Module, one can effectively communicate their LGU’s nutrition program by simply following the 7C’s of communication:

Clear: For the recipient, the message should be simple to interpret. The message received must match the message given by the sender in order for communication to be understood. The message should not cover numerous concepts in a single line and should instead focus on one goal at a time.

Correct: The sender must verify that the message is written in the appropriate language and is free of grammatical and spelling errors. The message should also be precise and timely. Accurate messages have a higher effect on the recipient, and at the same time, the sender's morale rises as a result of the message's accuracy.

Complete: The message should contain all the important details that the target audience will need to know. The comprehensive material provides answers to all of the recipient's inquiries and aids in improved decision-making.

Concrete: A message should include all relevant facts and numbers in order to support the sender's claims. This indicates that there is no possibility for misunderstanding.

Concise: The communication should be direct and concise. The sender should aim to use as few words as possible to communicate the message and should avoid using long sentences. A succinct message that is easy to read and understand helps to keep the recipient's attention.

Consideration: To establish an efficient communication, the sender must take the receiver's opinions, knowledge, perspective, background, and others into account. The sender must be connected to and involved with the recipient in order to communicate.

Courteous: It means that in order to ensure that the message is encouraging and targeted at the audience, the sender must take into account both the feelings and perspectives of the recipient. The communication shouldn't be prejudicial and must use language that respects the recipient.

To learn not only on how to effectively communicate your nutrition program, nutrition focal persons are encouraged to enroll in NNC’s NPM e-Learning module which is available annually. Just simply visit and follow NNC 7’s official Facebook page for details and updates. // Norre Jean V. delos Santos