CATARMAN, Northern Samar– Fourteen out of 24 towns of the province of Northern Samar are included in the list of implementation areas for the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Program (PMNP) of the Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
This was learned from Felicita Borata, DOH Region 8 Nutrition Program Manager in a press conference held at PIA Provincial Office as part of the program launch on August 3.
The 14 PMNP-recipient towns are Biri, Capul, Gamay, Laoang, Las Navas, Lavezares, Lope de Vega, Mapanas, Palapag, Pambujan, Rosario, San Roque, Silvino Lobos, and Victoria.
Borata sought the support of the media, other sectors particularly the LGUs concerned, for the success of the program.
The Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Program is a specific nutrition intervention to reduce stunting, respond to other nutrition issues and improve behavior and practices in selective and identified local government units which will run for four years with four implementation phases.
Lavezares Mayor Edito Saludaga expressed his gratitude for being one of the LGU recipients of the program. He disclosed that based on statistics 15% of their children 5 years old and below are stunted and malnourished, and that accounts for 1 out of 7 children in his town.
“I know that this will succeed because it is a joint project of the two best departments of the government, the DSWD and DOH, so I am very positive and enthusiastic that this program will really help solve the problem of malnutrition in our municipality,” said Saludaga.
“On my part, whatever the strategy that will be imposed by this program, we will follow. I support this project 110 percent,” he said.
The design and intervention of PMNP are enclosed in three components: strengthened delivery of nutrition and primary health services; community-based nutrition service, delivery and multisectoral nutrition convergence; and institutional strengthening, monitoring and evaluation.
The PMNP implementation structure flows from collaboration at the national level through the Inter-Agency Task Force for Zero Hunger (IATF-ZH) which is the Project Steering Committee. Under it is the management with PMNP National Technical Working Group from DOH, DSWD, NNC, DA, DILG, FNRI and OCS, while implementation will be spearheaded by the DOH and DSWD.
(MMP/ADiaz/PIA Northern Samar)
