THE Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is stepping up its strategies to improve its beneficiaries’ health and nutrition.
The 4Ps National Project Management Office (NPMO), together with the UNICEF Philippines, trained all regional Family Development Session (FDS) focal person, Training Specialists, and Social Welfare Officers (SWO) III in drafting materials that focus on its strategies.
Through this, the program becomes more health and nutrition-sensitive towards behavioral change.
The move is in adherence to the Republic Act 11148 or the “Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act,” more popularly known as the First 1000 Days law.
Signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte on November 29, 2018, the law seeks to scale up the national and local health and nutrition programs through a strengthened integrated strategy for maternal, neonatal, and child health, and nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life.
The law provides the enabling environment for the sustained provision of critical early child care interventions for optimal growth and development for the first 1000 days of a child’s life.
DSWD and Unicef trained the FDS focal persons and SWO III’s to develop supplemental materials to improve the 4Ps constituents’ access to health and nutrition services focused on the first 1,000 days.
4Ps National Project Management Director Gemma B. Gabuya said the training at Grand Astoria Hotel, Zamboanga City, from May 24 to 27 is in line with the department and program mandates of the agency to contribute to health and nutrition outcomes.
Director Gabuya said the first 1000 days of life ― between a woman's pregnancy and her child’s second birthday ― is a unique period of opportunity when the foundations for optimum health and development across the lifespan are established.
Nutrition Specialist in the Health and Nutrition Section of Unicef Philippines Country Office, Maria Evelyn Carpio, said that they are willing to extend support in roll-out pieces of training in collaboration with their provincial offices.
There are three crucial stages in the first 1,000 days: pregnancy, infancy, and toddlerhood.
In Northern Mindanao, 4Ps Regional Project Coordinator Kenneth Haze S. Lustre disclosed that the Regional Project Management Office would cascade the crafted module for the first 1,000 days to all Municipal and City Links. After that, the module will be discussed during the FDS using various forms.
Lustre hoped to improve the health and nutritional status of the children beneficiaries using the module.
The 4Ps is a national poverty reduction strategy of the national government.
It invests in the health, nutrition, and education of poor households for the improved well-being of Filipinos. (DSWD-10)
