San Jose, Negros Oriental to deploy Barangay Nutrition Scholars in 2019
The Municipal Nutrition Committee (MNC) of San Jose, Negros Oriental, under the leadership of Mayor Mel Nick S. Logronio, is set to deploy fourteen Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNSs) to all barangays as an answer to the town’s malnutrition problem.
Based on the Operation Timbang Plus results, the prevalence of undernutrition in the municipality of San Jose is increasing from 9.2% in 2015 to 9.7% in 2017 and consistently includes them in the top 10 municipalities with highest undernutrition rate in the province of Negros Oriental. In the 2018 OPT Plus result, the municipality ranks 4th in underweight and severely underweight, 3rd in stunted and severely stunted, and 3rd in wasted and severely wasted with prevalence rate of 8.7%, 23.8%, and 7.2%, respectively.
The situation serves a wake-up call for the MNC and allotted an initial budget of Php 50,000 for the Barangay Nutrition Scholar (BNS) Program. This is to ensure that nutrition services are delivered up to the farthest families in every barangay and to improve the nutrition situation of the municipality.
BNS Program is a human resource strategy of the Phil. Plan of Action for Nutrition. Presidential Decree 1569 was enacted to strengthen the Barangay Nutrition Program by providing at least one BNS in every barangay. A BNS is a barangay-based volunteer worker responsible for delivering nutrition and other related activities such as community health, backyard food production, environmental sanitation, mental feeding, and family planning to the barangay.
Currently, San Jose is the only town without BNSs in the region. With this development, all municipalities of Central Visayas is now covered with the BNS program. (UHCI/NO II Shaira Vita A. Calumpang)
