Daily feeding program for Marawi 'bakwits'

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/999049
• Wednesday, July 5, 2017 3:45 pm

(EOF/PNA)

COTABATO CITY, July 5 -– Disaster and health officials in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) embarked on a daily feeding program for internally displaced persons (IDPs), in partnership with foreign and local aid agencies.

The project, dubbed “Universal Feeding”, will provide nutritious food to IDPs in more than 80 evacuation centers of Marawi displaced families in Iligan City and other Lanao del Sur towns.

Dr. Kadil Sinolinding Jr., regional secretary of the Department of Health (DOH-ARMM), said health providers from Lanao del Sur Integrated Provincial Health Office workers of the ARMM Humanitarian Emergency Action Response Team (HEART) are tasked to ensure evacuees are getting proper nutrition to save them from the risk of diseases common in crowded and unhealthy condition in evacuation centers.

In most evacuation centers, IDPs get noodles and canned goods as emergency food supplies. But health officials said frequent intake of canned goods, noodles and the like may not provide proper nutrition to the IDPS.

Lawyer Laisa Alamia, ARMM executive secretary, said daily ARMM-HEART and DOH workers have been feeding mothers and children with correct and proper nutrition dubbed as Universal Feeding in partnership with United Nations agencies.

“We provide them with nutritious foods and we will be doing this until the end of the year,” Alamia told a news conference in Cotabato City.

At the end of the year, Alamia said health workers will conduct post nutrition programs, like weighing the children and IDPs, measuring their height to determine if there are health improvement indicators.

The feeding program coincides with the observance of Nutrition Month in July.

Without revealing statistics due to its unavailability as of posting, Sinolinding said diarrhea and respiratory disease are the leading illnesses IDPs are facing.

On Wednesday, in Saguiaran Elementary School evacuation site in Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur, DOH-ARMM and ARMM-HEART workers will repack food donations for the IDPs.