Councilor wants Talisay to check depressed areas for signs of malnutrition

CEBU, Philippines - Talisay City Councilor Danny Caballero has urged the city health office to check the health of young children especially those living in depressed areas.

Caballero said the assessment would help the city formulate plans to address malnutrition.

"Through this we will know what our next steps would be: whether to have more feeding programs or find other ways to stop this problem on malnutrition," said the councilor.

Caballero, along with fellow opposition councilors Romeo Villarante and Val Ylanan, has been conducting feeding programs in the city's 22 barangays, but according to him, that is just a temporary solution.

"As of the moment, we pick children from depressed areas as beneficiaries of the feeding program. We are not sure whether these children are malnourished, therefore, it is important the city conduct a survey," he said.

Caballero said the last survey was conducted in 2008 by the National Nutrition Council 7 which showed Talisay City leading the 12 cities in the region for having the highest number of malnourished pre-school children. The pre-school children who were subject in the Operation Timbang were those aged 0-77 months.

The city hall then launched barangay-based feeding projects, and subsequent programs such as awarding villages with zero-malnutrition case followed.

Last month also, first district Rep. Eduardo R. Gullas released P315,000 for Talisay's feeding program.

This project targets 3 to 5 years old children who are not enrolled in Day Care Centers.

The city has had several feeding projects for its children already. (FREEMAN)