By Emmanuel Solis – PNA News
LEGAZPI CITY — Legazpi City has been cited by the National Nutrition Council as Bicol region’s outstanding local government in carrying out nutrition programs in the community.
Mayor Noel E. Rosal, together with City Health Officer Dr. Fulbert Gillego, City Nutrition Officer Natividad Cardel and members of the City Nutrition Committee, received the Regional Green Banner award from Department of Health 5 (Bicol) Officer-in-Charge Director Ernie Vera IV and Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Arlene R. Reario at the Casablanca Hotel here Tuesday.
The Green Banner award is the highest recognition given to a municipality, city or province that has shown a very satisfactory performance in implementing a nutrition program, during the annual conduct of the Monitoring and Evaluation of the Local Level Plan Implementation by the inter-agency Regional Nutrition Evaluation team.
The recognition was based on a study conducted by the Regional Nutrition Evaluation team on the implementation of the city’s nutrition program, which includes the “Sagip Kalusugan” project for malnourished children.
Gillego said that under the “Sagip Kalusugan”, the city nutrition division has regularly conducted medical and dental check-ups, as well as laboratory examinations, chest X-Ray, deworming and vitamins supplementation to all six-month-old children with Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB).
The city nutrition division has also conducted a regular “Operation Timbang” as the best way of monitoring the weight of all the pre-school children, he said.
Gillego noted that the “Sagip Kalusugan” project has expanded its services not only to malnourished children but also to day-care pupils, giving them annual check-ups as well as vitamins to augment the daily supplemental feeding of the City Social Welfare and Development Office.
He said the successful implementation of the project has resulted in the reduction of the prevalence rate of malnutrition among 0-59-month-old children in Legazpi from 12.2 percent in 2006 and to only 2.8 percent in 2017.
The city nutrition division has also conducted a regular nutrition education program to all the mothers in the 70 villages of this city as part of the promotion of the Nutrition Guidelines. They inform and educate the women on proper breastfeeding, and Responsible Parenthood and Maternal and Child health care, Gillego said.
He said his office regularly monitors pregnant women and gives regular check-ups and medical treatment to sick mothers to protect them from infectious diseases and anemia that could result in the low weight of the babies.
Meanwhile, Rosie Manriza has been chosen as one of the outstanding Barangay Nutrition Scholars in Bicol.
Manriza, 30, a resident of Barangay Maslog Legazpi City, had worked as a Barangay Health Worker for three years before her appointment as Barangay Nutrition Scholar in January 2016.
