Malnutrition Decreased, Says City Health

The number of malnourished pre-school children in Cebu City has decreased to 5,036 this year as compared to 5,701 in 2012, according to City Health Officer Stella Ygoña in her report to Mayor Michael Rama.

The report said there were 135,675 pre-schoolers or those enrolled in public Day-Care Centers who had been subjected to ‘Operation Timbang’ this year to find out who among them needs help from the government through feeding programs.

Ygoña believed that the lack of adequate nourish food might be the reason why these children become underweight, based on their age and height. Aside from giving them supplemental feeding, the health officials also conducted seminars to the parents of the concerned children, Ygoña said.

Local authorities said the parents were taught on how to prepare nutritious food for their children in line with the government’s ‘Pabasa sa Nutrition’ program, where selected parents of malnourished children were asked to attend training and were also requested to share their knowledge to other parents.

Aside from the malnourished children, it was also found out that there are 1,319 overweight pre-school children, although the figure is already lower compared to 1,630 last 2012.

Ygoña happily announced that based on the latest results of the ‘Operation Timbang’ the number of children with normal weight had increased to 129,324 as compared to 123,633 last year.

It was learned that last year the national government gave P10 million to Cebu City through the Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) for the supplemental feeding program of the malnourished pre-schoolers in the city’s public schools.