Bilar brgy kagawads study Inabanga Nutri program

INABANGA – Municipal and barangay officials from Bilar became this town's latest visitors to study the implementation of national health programs here. Dr. Evangeline Delfin, municipal health officer (MHO), led the delegation that looked into this town's “secret” for possible duplication back home.

Marlyn Melecio, local public health nurse (PHN) told the group that Mayor Josephine Socorro Jumamoy's administration aims to pull undernourished children back into the pink of health. The program includes giving livelihood opportunities to the children's families geared toward sustainability. Melecio said this town is a recipient of the Consistent Regional Outstanding Winner in Nutrition (CROWN) Maintenance Award for the second year in a row but Jumamoy is not resting on her laurels. She pushes her team to exert more effort to sustain the program and attain zero malnutrition. Melecio toured the visitors to the Rural Health Unit (RHU) office and the Municipal Nutrition Office that documented the recognition winning activities. She said the collaborative work of the municipal and barangay officials, rural health personnel, and barangay health workers (BHWs) in implementing the Philippines nutrition program under Jumamoy's leadership style - demand-driven, community based and participatory – led to the distinction.

The upland and coastal interventions and development efforts of the Inabanga Resource Rehabilitation and Development Project (IRRDP) evolved through participatory governance focused on poverty alleviation also aim to provide better nutrition – and sustain it. The group observed the set up, arrangement and presentation of the nutrition records, the charts on proper nutrition, the flow chart of responsibilities, the pictorial presentation of the different nutrition activities and feeding programs in the different barangays. Delfin said Jumamoy's leadership and management skills elicited collaboration from the municipal and barangay officials and line agencies involved have gone a long way to uplift the health of her constituents. Knowing what makes the local nutrition program tick, Delfin vowed to suggest to the local chief executive in their town for replication.

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