In its bid to ensure the children’s health all over Davao City, an educational program on proper food and nutrition is being aired once a week over Davao City Disaster Radio, which targets daycare mothers waiting for their kids at school.
Nutrition Division Head Elizabeth Banzon said that 25 to 30 participants enrolled in the program listen, answer quizzes, and will graduate after finishing the modules.
“Naay quiz kada human sa module, unya ilang tubagon. Naka-focus ang discussion sa 10 ka Kumainments (They answer a quiz after each module. The focus of the discussion is the 10 Kumainments),” Banzon said.
The National Nutrition Council’s 10 Kumainments are: eat a variety of foods; breastfeed the baby for the first six months; eat fruits and vegetables every day; eat foods rich in protein; drink milk and take foods high in calcium; take clean food and water; use iodized salt; tone down on salty, oily and sweet foods; keep the right weight; and stay active by avoiding alcohol and cigarettes.
The school on the air, which started on October 23, 2024, aired its 4th session on Thursday and has four remaining sessions only – November 20 and 27, November 21 and 28, 1 pm-2 pm (Special Program for Nutrition School on the Air)
Banzon said that she assigns different nutrition officers per session so that they will be exposed and participate, and will be able to answer the concerns of the audience, enrolled or not.
She also said that they partnered with barangays and daycare centers in pushing for the program.
“With the permission of the barangay captain and Child Development Workers from CSWDO while waiting ang mga mama sa daycare, sa gawas butangan og radio ang uban pud namog radio, ang uban pud sa cellphone nila, and i-click nila ang DCDR [live program] (With the permission of the barangay captain, and Child Development workers from the CSWDO, a radio is placed outside for mothers waiting outside the daycare center. Others use their cellphones to access the DCDR live program),” she said.
Banzon said that this forms part of their strengthened information drive on child nutrition.
Banzon said that along with the child nutrition advocacy, barangay health workers on the ground conduct case finding daily. They conduct follow-up visits to the children found to be malnourished in order to monitor their progress under the given intervention.
Part of the intervention is the distribution of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) to children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and moderately acute malnutrition (MAM).
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), RUTF is a food and medicine for severely malnourished individuals. Packets of RUTF are distributed based on the weight of the child.
Banzon said that the number of days for the intervention, including the provision of RUTF packets, varies. Usually, it takes 120 days for SAM and 90 days for MAM. CHO has a ready stock of these as needed.
Meanwhile, Banzon said that while intervention is available, eating healthy food within the family and breastfeeding by mothers is still highly encouraged to promote the overall health of the family members.
She added that barangays are strongly advised to revive or strengthen their Gulayan sa Barangay and families to have container gardens in their homes to produce fresh vegetables accessible to them. CIO