Saturday, October 22, 2016

Movement seen to fight old-aged malnutrition in E. Visayas

TACLOBAN CITY, Oct. 21 (PNA) -- The National Nutrition Council (NNC) is strongly advocating for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement to combat malnutrition in the region.

The agency has been conducting rounds of orientation in the six provinces of Eastern Visayas to endorse the movement to various nutrition stakeholders.

"SUN movement is an advocacy program that aims to push local government units to invest in nutrition interventions," said NNC regional nutrition program coordinator Catalino Dotollo, Jr.

The movement is focused on the effective implementation of both specific actions for nutrition and nutrition sensitive interventions.

Dotollo lamented that many local government units don’t consider nutrition as a vital program, noting that some only remember the initiative every July to celebrate Nutrition Month.

“The local government can actually carry out nutrition programs regularly along with other interventions such as agriculture, health, education, livelihood, among others,” Dotollo said.

SUN is a global drive to scale up nutrition among children in their first 1,000 days of life.

"Its purpose is to eliminate all kinds of malnutrition," said Ullasini Pangan, NNC nutrition officer.

According to Pangan, this movement is not a program, but an advocacy that would bring people together to work on a single aspiration - eliminating malnutrition.

The movement is comprised of various networks of civil society, donors, business community, technical agencies, United Nations and government agencies.

The Philippines voluntarily signed in to the Sun Movement in 2013 and the 51st country to join the movement. (PNA) JMC/SQM/Jonabel L. Salazar (OJT)
/EGR

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