Official upbeat on WV nutrition situation
Nona Tad-y, regional program coordinator of the National Nutrition Council, has expressed a positive outlook on the region’s nutrition situation of pre-schoolers and school children this year, the Philippine Information Agency reported.
Tad-y said that the government’s initiative to improve the nutritional status of children in identified nutritionally-depressed provinces and cities in the region is coursed through the promotion of good nutrition under the Accelerated Hunger Mitigation program.
The promotion of good nutrition under the AHMP is complemented by the food production program of the Department of Agriculture; Department of Education’s food for school program; Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Health nutrition program; and Tindahan Natin of the National Food Authority.
The program is also enhanced by the continuous capability building trainings of District and City Nutrition Program Coordinators, Provincial/City/Municipal Nutrition Action Officers, and Barangay Nutrition Scholars.
Another measure to help improve the nutrition situation of the children is to reach parents through nutritional education materials and mass media campaign, Tad-y said.
“This way we can reach out to the remotest areas of the region through the media and our trained health personnel,” she said. “We are working towards quality of life of the children, and in order to reach this goal, and we should start with children’s nutrition as a foundation for good quality of life.”
Based on the World Health Organization growth standard, the 2009 OPT conducted in Region 6, showed that 9.97 percent of zero to 10 months old children are underweight, or 10 in every 100 children are underweight.
The result also showed that the province of Antique has the most number of underweight children followed by Iloilo, Aklan, NegrosOcc., Guimaras and Capiz.
Among the top ten municipalities, seven are in Iloilo province, two from Antique and one from Aklan. These are Carles, San Dionisio, T.Fornier in Antique , Estancia, Bingawan, Caluya in Antique, Lemery, Batad, Balasan, and Tangalan in Aklan.
The nutritionally depressed cities include Escalante, San Carlos, Sipalay, Cadiz, Himamaylan, Kabankalan, Passi, Sagay, Bacolod and Silay.
The prevalence of malnutrition among six to 10 years old school children was recorded at 23.92 percent. The DepEd OPT result ranked by Division, showed that Kabankalan City topped this category, followed by Antique, Cadiz City and La Carlota City, among others.
