Koronadal City—As part of its nutrition program in 2023, the Provincial Government of South Cotabato is launching RST sa Nutrisyon, a Provincial Nutrition Committee (PNC)-led project in Barangay Laconon, Tboli, on February 14, to address problems on malnutrition holistically.
Dubbed as Responsable nga PagSagod kag PagTatap sa Nutrisyon is a menu of services mainly given to severely wasted and underweight preschoolers in South Cotabato. The services include clinical attention, nutrition intervention and livelihood services with the special participation of social mobilization, advocacy and communication for nutrition.
Rudy Jiminea, Provincial Nutrition Action Officer, said the project aims to improve child nutritional status in both weight and height malnutrition among the towns of South Cotabato and reduce malnutrition rate to medium level.
“The project targets at least 300 severely wasted children in the province,” he said.
The PNC offers home-based package and hospital-care package. Home-based package is for beneficiary whose condition needs not hospital care intervention. The beneficiary stays at home while the Provincial Government amplifies the services such as supplementary feeding, milk feeding and others. Advocacy and other health promotions are given at the comfort of their homes.
The hospital-care package, on the other hand, presents hospital intervention if the child is diagnosed with complications.
Various nutrition-related advocacy are introduced to the caregivers. Different topics are presented such as family planning, basic gardening, food preparation, health and wellness, and many more that could help increase the level of behavior change about food and nutrition.
Meanwhile livelihood assistance is given to the parents to complement their income.
“The project visions a community where children are healthy and active,” Jiminea stressed.
The PNC then performs a holistic evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the intervention in terms of change in nutritional status of children, the effectiveness of the model in impacting health behavior through promotion of good nutrition and other related topics and the economic condition of the family.
“Our love for children pushed us to move now to save their future,” Jiminea added.
