IN BARANGAY Jaclupan in March, children and parents lined up to avail themselves of the services provided under Talisay City’s Halad sa Barangay.
“Halad sa Barangay is when (representatives of) all offices of the City Hall go to the barangay and offer their services, like health, agriculture (giving seedlings), medical, dental and veterinary services,” said Talisay City social welfare officer Felipa Solana.
It was also the occasion for children, not necessarily malnourished, to participate in a feeding activity.
Solana said they feed whoever shows up for the feeding, which means anyone from one-year-olds to school-age children, and senior citizens.
“In the Halad sa Barangay, we schedule a visit to one barangay. We may visit one to two barangays a month,” she said, “but we haven’t visited any in May, June and July because it is the Department of Agriculture that schedules the activity.”
In a year, they get to visit more than 10 of Talisay’s 22 barangays.
Solana said Halad sa Barangay was started by Mayor Eduardo Gullas last year.
Outside the Halad, there is regular feeding for 120 days of enrollees at the city’s day care centers.
“This year, we will probably start in September, and it will run until March,” she said.
Those identified to be malnourished bashed on Operation Timbang Plus results would be sent to the day care centers for three- to five-year-olds, where they could participate in the feeding.
The target for day care feeding is 3,625 children this year, she said.
Since the local government could well serve these children already, when the non-government organization Feed the Children last year offered to sponsor a feeding activity, Solana said they channeled it to other children not served in day care.
As for children below day care age, barangay nutrition scholars take charge of them.
“We started last year a barangay feeding using the City budget. The wasted and severely wasted children were brought to a designated place,” Solana said.
The other year, she said, barangay feeding outside of day care was done through barangay nutrition scholars for 20 days straight.
Last year, the city was able to check the nutritional status of 89.87 percent of its estimated 37,852 pre-school children under six years old during the Operation Timbang Plus, the highest coverage among Cebu’s nine cities.
Political will, dedication and resourcefulness are key to improving the nutrition of children. (CTL/SunStar Cebu)