BONTOC, Mountain Province – Twenty-one health workers in this capital town underwent a training of trainers on basic course for Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS) on April 4 to 7 in Barangay Samoki.
The training aimed to capacitate the BNS in delivering effective nutrition services and other related activities such as community health, backyard food production, environmental sanitation, culture, mental feeding, and family planning.
Resource speakers are from the National Nutrition Council-CAR led by OIC Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Bella Basalong nutrition officers Velanie Dao-ines and Perlyne Martin. Midwife Lilia Angagka from the Municipal Health Office was also tapped as a resource speaker.
The training had six modules.
Topics covered in the first module are legal mandates and rationale of the BNS, selection, recruitment, benefits, and incentives of a BNS, roles and function of a BNS; and core values of a BNS.
Module 2 covered basic concepts on food and nutrition, and the forms, cause and causes of malnutrition.
Module 3 focused on developing the communication, presentation, advocacy, documentation, report writing and record-keeping, time management, organization and coordinating skills of BNS.
Module 4 discussed situating the Barangay Nutrition Program in the local development system.
Module 5 covered topics on the role of BNS in barangay nutrition program management.
Since the training involved lecture, demonstration, and workshop, module 6 highlighted the basic course for BNS.
The participants are Municipal Health Officer Diga Kay Gomez, Municipal Nutrition Action Officer Venous Faith Cofulan, midwives in the 16 barangays of Bontoc, barangay wealth workers coordinators, and BNS.
The BNS Program is a human resource development strategy of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition, which involves the recruitment, training, deployment and supervision of volunteer workers.
Presidential Decree 1569 mandated the deployment of one BNS in every barangay in the country to monitor the nutritional status of children and/or link communities with nutrition and related service providers.
PD 1569 also mandated the NNC to administer the program in cooperation with local government units.– Alpine K. Malwagay
April 25, 2024
