BUGALLON— From being the town with the most number of underweight children in the province in 2014, this second district municipality has shown progress in dealing with its nutritional crisis.

 Based on the 2015 Operation Timbang (OPT) results gathered and tabulated by the Provincial Health Office, Bugallon already ranks as the fourth, no longer the first, among the 44 municipalities and four cities in the province with high prevalence of underweight (UW) and severely underweight (SUW) children.

  From 892 out of 10,441 in 2014, the number of underweight children in 2015 registered only 489 out of the 10,471 children that weighed- 386 UW and 103 SUW- or an underweight prevalence percentage of 4.67% this year.

  Presently, Aguilar town now has the most number of underweight kids or with 5.34%, San Quintin with 4.9%, and Pozorrubio with 4.82% underweight prevalence.

 Aquino said the improvement was due to the cooperation of families in the various intervention programs of the LGU dubbed joint action and initiatives to eliminate (JAIE) malnutrition.

 These included deworming, food assistance program, and micronutrient supplementation.

 Under the food assistance program, the “adopt a severely underweight child” milk program was launched on July 24, 2014, that provided a daily 200-milliliter carabao milk drink for a period of 90 days.

The program was a partnership between the local government unit (LGU) and the private sector. Bugallon Mayor Jumel Anthony Espino led town officials and personnel, and private individuals in sponsoring the 90-day milk supply of the kids in the 24 barangays.

 Aquino said they are still looking for funding for the second wave of the milk sponsorship program.

 Mr. Espino said the town’s target is “zero malnutrition rate.” (Johanne Macob)

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