Tuesday, February 21, 2012

MAASIN CITY -- The City Government aims to keep its title as nutrition champion in Eastern Visayas until 2014 in a bid to capture the Nutrition Honor Award (NHA) by the National Government.

NHA is the highest recognition given by the National Government to areas working to curb malnutrition.

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Mayor Maloney Samaco said he wants to replicate the feat of Limasawa, Southern Leyte, an NHA recipient last year. The island municipality is the first local government unit (LGU) in the region to receive the award.

“We want to be the second NHA awardee after Limasawa. It will be more challenging to us because our population is 86,000, while Limasawa is only 6,000,” Samaco told Leyte Samar Daily Express.

He said their goal is to bring down the malnutrition rate to only one percent just like Naga City, one of the first NHA awardees in the country.

“We have been implementing innovative programs to address malnutrition. That resulted in reduction of prevalence of underweight children from 10 percent in 2007 to only five percent this year,” Samaco added.

The city has been known for garnering the Green Banner Award in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2011. The LGU is the Crown awardee last year.

If they will be able to maintain as Crown awardee in three years, the City Government will receive the highest recognition.

The national evaluation team is set to visit on April 10-11 this year to assess the nutrition program efficiency and effectiveness, which include the management of city nutrition program and changes in nutritional status of children.

“The challenge for the city is to attain the first year Crown maintenance award in 2012, second year maintenance in 2013 and get the Nutrition Honor Award in 2014,” said NNC Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Carina Santiago.

Samaco said they are stepping up their fight against malnutrition by providing interventions to pregnant women to ensure that babies are in good health.

“I looked at nutrition as the future of our children. If we will take care of the younger generation, they will have a brighter future. Malnutrition will affect the children’s physical health an intellect. We invest considerable sum for nutrition programs,” he stressed. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)

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Maasin City eyes top nutrition award