BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the National Nutrition Council (NNC-CAR) urged the third batch of graduates of the agency’s Nutrition School on the Air (NSOA) program to be aggressive ambassadors of good nutrition to advance the government’s health and nutrition advocacies to the grassroots level and empower Filipinos to be healthy lifestyle practitioners.
NNC-CAR regional nutrition program coordinator Rita Papey said the lessons on nutrition taught during the two and a half months NSOA should be internalized by the graduates for them to be able to impart the same to the members of their families and their communities as ambassadors of good nutrition.
Papey was the guest of honor and speaker during the recently-concluded NSOA graduation ceremony held at the Margarita Hall of the Hotel Supreme with some 163 individuals from Baguio City, Benguet, Nueva Vizcaya, Mountain Province, La Union and Pangasinan completing the prescribed course aired over a local radio station.
“We urge you to start doing the little things in practicing good nutrition as the foundation of bigger things that can happen in your community, especially in our advocacy for people to practice good nutrition that will translate to a healthy community,” Papey stressed.
The NNC-CAR official also challenged the NSOA graduates to have the positive attitude in dealing with the day-to-day activities of their families so as not to be burdened by the challenges that often confront them.
The NSOA is an annual information education campaign on good nutrition and healthy lifestyle of the NNC-CAR in partnership with the Cordillera Administrative Region Media Educators on Nutrition (CAR-MENU) where issues and concerns on nutrition are aired for the radio listeners and those are enroled in the two and a half months lecture series.
The NSOA program started in 2017 with over 600 enrollees but only over 400 individuals were able to graduate from the course.
In 2018, there were more than 500 enrolees but only over 200 individuals from different parts of Northern Luzon graduated from the said program.
For this year, only 277 individuals enrolled but only 163 persons completed the course.
Papey assured concerned stakeholders the agency will pursue the implementation of short, medium and long-term nutrition advocacy programs that will cascade to the grassroots level important information to the people to guide them in embracing a healthy lifestyle.
She added the agency will evaluate the implementation of the NSOA to ascertain the needed innovations to the program to encourage more participants from the different parts of the regions reached by the signal of the carrying radio station to join the same to help in advancing the program to the grassroots level.
By HENT
