Another optimistic capacity building initiative was successfully conducted for the Barangay Nutrition Committees (BNCs) last December 21 and 22 as part of the barangay mobilization in the City in Calamba.

There are now a total of 113 participants consisting of 74 Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNSs) and 39 Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) from the 54 Barangay Nutrition Clusters of the city, ready to serve as nutrition responders during calamities.

The 2-batch virtual training on “Nutrition in Emergencies and Information Management (NiE-IM)” was conducted by the City Nutrition Office of Calamba and headed by CNAO Ms. Aleli Catalina Jimenez with the assistance of CNPC Ms. Charlene Pradas.

To equip the BNCs in NiE-IM, technical assistance was provided by NNC staff NO II Mr. Edward Paglinawan, NO I Mr. Darrenz William Mateos and PNFP Ms. Mary Emerene Pingol. It will capacitate the BNSs and BHWs in providing timely and appropriate essential nutrition services during emergencies and disasters.

The training covered two modules which consists of the following topics: Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) and cluster approach; introduction to nutrition in emergencies (NiE); nutrition assessment; NiE interventions and information management (IM).

The BNSs and BHWs play a vital role during calamities. They serve as frontliners in gathering important information and responding to the nutrition needs of the most affected vulnerable groups, so they have to be always prepared and ready to take action during emergencies and disaster.

Although more and more Filipinos are becoming resilient during difficult times, there is still a a need for the government to continuously provide essential services and respond promptly to calamities and disasters to prevent illness, deaths, and worsening of malnutrition in affected populations, particularly among the most nutritionally vulnerable groups which are the infants, children, pregnant women, lactating mothers, and elderly.

By: Mary Emerene P. Pingol