DAVAO DEL NORTE, July 8 (PIA) - - - The provincial government of Davao del Norte and the Department of Education (DepEd) assembled last Friday (July 4) different stakeholders to address malnutrition in the province of Davao del Norte through School Based Feeding Program (SBFP).
The orientation and workshop on SBFP was participated by USEC Mario Derequito of DepEd and Governor Rodolfo del Rosario along with the different local government units and non government organizations in the province.
USEC Derequito said that SBFP aims to resolve the problem of hunger and malnutrition in the public school by totally rehabilitating the severely wasted and wasted children from Kinder to Grade 6.
Derequito said that malnutrition caused the low attendance of the pupils, which leads to affecting their performance and learning capacity.
He added that the national government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) released P 1-billion funds to feed the 562,262 severely wasted school children in the country.
According to United Nations Children’s Fund, children with severely wasted nutritional status have nine times high risk of infections and diseases leading to death.
He said that according to the program, the child will be fed based on the menu prepared by the nutritional office of the DepEd for 120 school days or equivalent to six months starting this July or not later than September.
He added that the cost of the feeding including its operational expenses is P 16 a day per pupil, which accumulates to a total of P 1,920 per child for the whole duration of the program.
However, USEC Derequito disclosed that there are still 1.5 million Filipino children who have wasted nutritional status and they cannot be accommodated in the said funds.
USEC Derequito said that the SBFP coordinates with the local government units and its partner non government organization to assist in the malnutrition drive of the national government.
“We will not wait for next year’s budget to cater these wasted children. We can attain our goal if we develop partnership; if the LGUs will match what the DepEd or the DSWD is giving” he said.
Derequito said that based on the stories he was told, the province is not new with the type of bayanihan with the private sector in terms of nutritional feeding.
“You have done this before and I think that up to now, we can cover more undernourished children in the province,” he said.
Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario said that the province have applied public-private partnership approach in alleviating the problem of malnutrition in the province.
However, Gov. del Rosario said that although the government is there to support these malnourished children, the nutrition of the children should be the main responsibility of the parents.
Derequito reminded that the feeding is only supplementary to the meal and should not be regarded as a substitute to breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Dr. Ma. Corazon Dumalo, health chief of DepEd said that the complimentary activities to the feeding were deworming, good grooming and personal hygiene, integration on essential health care program, food production in schools, waste segregation and composting, productivity life and values training and nutritional education to parent.
Dr. Earl Canastillo of DepEd based in the province presented the situationer of malnutrition in the province.
Dr. Canastillo said that based on the enrollment, in the division of Davao del Norte, there were 7,299 pupils from Kinder 1 to Grade 6 who have severely wasted and wasted nutritional status, which is 9.29% of the population.
Canastillo said that the other divisions in the province has the following prevalence rate of severely and waste children – Tagum City, 2,950 pupils or 7.72% of the population; Panabo City, 1,314 pupils or 8.01%; and Island Garden City of Samal, 1,250 or 7.24%.
At the end of the session, the LGU and the non government organizations pledged their commitments on the implementation of the program in the province by adopting school children for the SBFP. (PIA 11, Michael Uy)
No comments:
Post a Comment