2-day workshop on nutrition set

CEBU, Philippines - The National Nutrition Council (NNC)-7 is set to conduct a two-day workshop with some of Cebu’s journalists and other line agencies that advocate good nutrition.

This is in line with its goal to create a “regional communication plan that would effectively and efficiently disseminate information regarding the Nutritional Guidelines for Filipinos (NGF).”

The two-day 2012 NGF Communication Plan Formulation Workshop on August 7 to 8  aims to “keep up with the changes in the nutrition situation in the country as well as new information on nutrition and related interventions to address nutrition and related health problems.”  Parolita Mission, regional nutrition program coordinator, said that the NNC leads in promoting and ensuring the widest dissemination and use of the 2012 NGF.

The NNC has been spotlighting hunger as a critical issue in the problem of undernutrition and malnutrition.

The country is observing Nutrition Month this month.

Mission had said that there is a need for a continued effort in addressing hunger as part of the Philippines’ commitment to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN-MDG), specifically in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

The Philippines is a signatory to the UN-MDG.

Under the agreement, the Philippines committed to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by reducing by half the prevalence of underweight children and reducing by half the percentage of households with inadequate energy intake, among others.

 Meanwhile, in a statement, Senator Loren Legarda has called for the establishment of a child nutrition program in all public schools nationwide to address malnutrition which affects at least half a million elementary students.

 Legarda noted that statistics from the Department of Education showed that 562,262 pupils in kindergarten and elementary levels (Grades 1 to 6) enrolled in public schools in the previous school year were assessed as “severely wasted”.

 In this regard, Legarda refiled the proposed Child Nutrition Law.

 The bill seeks to improve the health status of schoolchildren through a system-wide plan to implement a nutrition and health program in schools and barangay day care centers, consisting of a complementary feeding program and may also include other nutrition-related activities such as micronutrient supplementation, weighing and growth monitoring, deworming of children, and promotion of improved hygiene practices. —  (FREEMAN)