Region VII

Details: Category: Region 7; Published: 16 February 2016

Alcantara, Cebu – Pinpointing malnutrition as one of the town’s most serious problems, the municipality of Alcantara in the province of Cebu launched the first Comprehensive Nutrition Program Ordinance in the region on 01 February 2016 at the Alcantara Dome, Alcantara, Cebu.

The ordinance entitled “Establishing a Comprehensive Nutrition Program to Address Malnutrition and Sustained Programs for Nutrition for the Municipality of Alcantara, Cebu and appropriating funds thereof", was approved on 25 November 2015. The local government of Alcantara with the support from the World Vision Development Foundation Inc., partners and other stakeholders passed the said ordinance to solve the rising malnutrition problem in the municipality. The town registered a 14.40% undernutrition (weight-for-age) for its preschool children, according to the 2015 Operation Timbang Plus results which made it the 2nd nutritionally depressed municipality in the entire region.

Details: Category: Region 7; Published: 29 January 2016

RBATF 7 1st Q meeting Cebu City – The Regional Bantay Asin Task Force 7 (RBAT 7) led the celebration of the Goiter Awareness Week (GAW) in the region on 25 to 30 January 2016. Plans for the said celebration were approved unanimously by the body during 1st Quarter RBAT 7 meeting held on 21 January 2016 at St. Mark's Hotel, Cebu City.

Details: Category: Region 7; Published: 15 January 2016

NNC reminds public to stay healthy during Sinulog
Cebu City – Few days before the Sinulog festival, the National Nutrition Council 7 reminds the public to watch over available food especially with the expected huge food fest for the rest of the day.

The celebration being one of the biggest and most sought after festivals in the region offers a wide variety of activities to local and foreign guests. Thus providing a great venue for everyone to party all day and enjoy the various foods available almost everywhere esp. in the parade route. However, there is a need to be vigilant on the foods people should eat considering the way how these are prepared.

Details: Category: Region 7; Published: 29 January 2016

City Nutrition Program Coordinator with the mothers from Bais City Bais City - Through a strong commitment to decrease the number of malnourished children in the city and to improve the nutrition situation of its citizens, the Bais City Nutrition Council (CNC) holds an active promotion campaign for the 10 Nutritional Guidelines for Filipinos (NGF) or the Ten Kumainments and the campaign on Home, School, Community Food Production during the first quarter of 2016.

Said promotion is an effort not just to communicate to the public, especially the vulnerable groups, how to be healthy but also recommending means to put food on their tables.

Nutrition surveillance data of Bais City shows a decrease in malnutrition rate from 11.46% in 2014 to 9.41% in the 1st quarter of 2015. The improvement of the city’s nutritional status is the result of the coordinative efforts of the City Nutrition Council members and its strong commitment for nutrition program.

One of the objectives of the CNC this year is to increase the number of households with vegetable gardens because having a garden at home is the most practical way for a family to be food secure, which means having nutritious food on the table for the family is one of the means to be healthy.

The Bais CNC believes that strong implementation of those activities mentioned earlier will not just increase the accomplishment of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) impact program no. 1 but also help achieve the Millennium Development Goal No. 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.//Ramon Anton M. Valencia

Details: Category: Region 7; Published: 31 December 2015

Cebu City – 2015 saw a significant decrease in the underweight-for-age prevalence of Central Visayas (still including Negros Oriental) from 5.54% in 2014 to 4.91% during the latest Operation Timbang Plus results.

This 12.9% change in malnutrition rate is attributed to the tireless work of local health and nutrition workers as well as better monitoring tools provided by many local nutrition committees with relevant decreases in the malnutrition rate of the City of Bais (from 11.46% in 2014 to 9.41% in 2015), Bogo City (from 4.54% to 2.39%) and the City of Naga (from 6.81% to 3.79%).

Operation Timbang Plus is a mass weight and height taking activity conducted by local health and nutrition workers on children 0-71 months old during the first quarter of the year throughout the country and despite the regions better performance this year, there are still some government units needing extra attention.

Samboan, a municipality in the Southern tip of Cebu leads in the 2015 Central Visayas malnutrition ranking with a prevalence rate of 20.05% or 2 in every 10 children who are underweight for their age. Samboan also happens to be the only municipality who have ranked top 10 in all of the malnutrition indices (#5 in stunting and #8 in wasting).