Wednesday, April 02, 2008 'Let communities handle feeding'
INSTEAD of bringing vitamin-fortified food to the homes of malnourished children, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña wants feeding centers set up in every homeowners community in the barangays.
Multiple feeding centers would ensure that the City’s nutrition program reaches the intended beneficiaries in the grassroots and the activities are implemented efficiently, the mayor said.
In his news conference yesterday, Osmeña admitted that the City has not done much yet to implement the recommendations of Dr. Florentino Solon in addressing the malnutrition problem.
House to house
Former city mayor Solon, who is also the executive director of the Nutrition Center of the Philippines, recommended a house-to-house monitoring of undernourished children and training the community in ensuring food security through organic gardening, among other things.
All these will be implemented and will be complemented by the establishment of several “Nutri-Pan sa Eskwelahan” in the south district, or the bakeries that serve vitamin A-rich bread to public school students.
“Our existing delivery of nutrition services is deficient if we are to compare it with the requirements that Dr. Solon said we should do. We really have to build up grassroots network,” the mayor said.
Osmeña instructed Department of Social Welfare Services (DSWS) Head Cathy Yso to tap volunteers in the various homeowners’ association who can identify the underweight children and facilitate the feeding program.
The mayor expressed his disappointment with the City Health Department (CHD) officials for not implementing the nutrition program in all the barangays.
“We are now shifting the implementation. Instead of the City Government directly giving assistance to the households, it would be easier and cheaper to establish feeding centers everywhere... DSWS will draw out the volunteers because the CHD does not have the state of mind to do this,” he said.
Osmeña said the operation of the feeding centers would be on a first-come-first-served basis.
Proposal
The first homeowners’ association to give a proposal and to submit their list of beneficiaries would be prioritized for funding.
Ideally, one volunteer health worker or nutrition scholar would be in charge of 10 households. But with a limited number of personnel, the nutrition program could be implemented among the homeowners’ association.
“We will do this by homeowners’ association because they are already organized. We are still in the planning stage, so this would take some time,” the mayor added.
He also gave instructions to train the volunteers on the mechanism to be used in identifying their intended beneficiaries. (LCR)
