COUNCILOR Maria Lourdes Gaane, chair of the City Council committee on health and health insurance, expressed gladness over the increase of the monthly allowance for Barangay Nutrition Scholar (BNS) for the year 2020.
This, after City Mayor Oscar Moreno announced recently that all BNS of the city will be receiving an increase of P1,000 each, from P3,000 to P4,000 per month, which will take effect next year.
According to Moreno, barangay health professionals deserved to receive the increase as they regularly attend to the health programs and projects not only of the city but also of the barangays.
Gaane said it can be recalled that the malnutrition rate of underweight children reduced from 2.1-percent in 2017 to 1.3-percent in 2019 for children ages 0 to 59 months.
She said the current allowance of BNS is not enough to cover the increase in the prices of their basic needs and all other expenses.
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 or barangay nutrition scholars.
Presidential Decree No. 1569 mandates the deployment of one BNS in every barangay to monitor the nutritional status of children and link communities with nutrition and related service providers. It also mandates the NNC to administer the program in cooperation with local government units. (sp)
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