TACLOBAN CITY – The Harmonized Initiatives of Media for the Spread of Good Nutrition in Region 8 (HIMSoG-8) visited the municipalities of Carigara, Babatngon and Capoocan for its first salvo of Media-Nutrition Caravan this year, conducted on June 7-8, 2018.
HIMSoG-8, the media-group partner of National Nutrition Council Region VIII (NNC-8), in its fight against hunger and malnutrition in the region targeted the three towns north-west of Leyte province, which have been noted on top in malnutrition incidence in Eastern Visayas region.
Based on year 2017 OPT results Babatngon ranked 1st in stunting and severely stunting with 46.90% or 1,475 of its children aged 0-5 years old weight were stunted, and again ranked 1st in underweight and severely underweight with 27.90% or 879 children underweight, and 25th in overweight/obesity with 6.66% or 241 children overweight; Capoocan ranked 2nd in stunting and severely stunting with 44.70% or 1,324 children stunted and 6th in overweight/obesity with 6.40% or 389 children obese; and Carigara ranked 19th in underweight and severely underweight with 18.10% or 366 children underweight and 26th in wasted and severely wasted with 8.40% or 170 children wasted.
The caravan is among the media-group’s nutrition advocacy activities--a measure to see how a certain locality is doing nutritionally, why it is lagging behind in nutrition and to document the good practices if doing well for other places to emulate. The activity seeks out the rationale for the Nutrition Situation of the target locality, and how its leaders are managing the situation. Aside from the group’s promotion of good nutrition through each respective medium (print, radio, TV and social media) the caravan is the most favored group-activity due to its “up-close and personal” proximity with the local government unit (LGU) leaders.
Of all three towns visited by HIMSoG-8 Media-Nutrition caravan, none of the local chief executives (LCEs) nor any of their elective alternates were around, to hear and be appraised of the prevailing nutrition situation of their respective municipalities, as they all were engaged with equally important concerns that time, as previously scheduled.
In the towns of Carigara and Babatngon the media-group was able to visit some villages to conduct ocular assessment of some of the town’s prevailing cases of Severely Acute Malnutrition (SAM), and thereby was able to conduct interviews and interaction with the SAM children’s parent.
Likewise HIMSoG-8 conducted its dialogues with the local government units (LGUs) middle managers present—mostly composed of municipal administrators, budget officers, municipal council members and MNAOs. In the towns of Babatngon and Carigara the dialogues were attended by a number of Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNSs).
During these intercourses the media-group with its NNC representative in company recommended some measures and strategies for the localities to adopt, to rectify current practices, and push up their nutritional status. (Jack C. Gadaingan)
