Ifugao town cited for nutrition program

By Dexter See

ASIPULO, Ifugao – The youngest municipal government in the Cordillera is now gaining recognition for good governance from reputation as most nutritionally depressed to an empowered and socially progressing town.

Since the time the municipal nutrition committee was activated and mobilized, it never stopped formulating innovative and doable health and nutrition programs envisioning a totally malnutrition-free community.

Most of the locally initiated programs and projects have proven to have facilitated the implementation of nutrition impact programs which turned out beneficial.

The town’s effective nutrition program was anchored on the creation of the “Ketteguan Council” aimed at preparing and simultaneously implementing health and nutrition projects.

The local government utilized an aggressive nutrition education campaigns in the different barangays and far flung sitios to promote and instill nutrition awareness to the local residents.

Aside from the relentless nutrition education campaign, concerned stakeholders, including health workers, barangay nutrition action officers and barangay nutrition scholars, conducted numerous nutrition classes for pregnant and lactating mothers as well as young couples, PABASA training, and distributed IEC materials primarily geared towards ensuring healthy lifestyles of the villagers.

Apart from nutrition education, villagers were also oriented on pertinent laws governing violence against women and children and mother and child health care in order to teach them the proper child rearing and family planning which will translate to improved health condition of identified malnourished people.

The local government also embarked on the successful distribution of vegetable seeds and animals to identified beneficiaries in order to inspire the local residents to produce crops that rice in minerals and vitamins in order to enhance the nutrition of the people.

Apart from simultaneously implementing various nutrition programs and projects, the municipal government also ventured on a sustainable environmental sanitation monitoring which is conducted twice a year

The “ketteguan Council” also initiated the conduct of the Search for the Best “Oban/Ayod Council” pursuant to Resolution No. 95, series of 2006 of the Sangguniang Bayan of Asipulo to encourage the “Oban/Ayod” members to aim for an excellent evaluation every 13th day of January in time for the celebration of the founding anniversary of the town.

Though the town had been through difficult times over the past several years, the local government was able to satisfactorily maintain effective and efficient nutrition program policies which had Asipulo as an inspiration of the whole province in the sustained effort to maintain a malnutrition-free community.

For the past six years, Asipulo has been garnering the Green Banner award at the regional level and the town’s success could be credited to the “Oban/Ayod” members who collectively worked in the implementation of the town’s nutrition plans.