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  1. Background of the Problem

Water is a basic need and according to the United Nations access to it is also a human right. It is an essential part of daily life and in maintaining good health. Safe water is utilized by humans through sanitation, food production, and hydration. Unsafe drinking water can lead to so many serious health conditions and even death. Every year many people, most especially children, suffer from dehydration and electrolyte imbalances caused by diarrheal diseases. It might be an easily preventable problem, but still many people are seriously affected by this especially those living in poverty-stricken communities where water is considered a luxury. In these areas, water sources are usually communal or public and there is no purification method used for drinking water.

In Barangay Maras, there are a couple of different water sources used by the residents and most of them are communal and are not yet confirmed to be potable.  The households situated near the highway get their drinking water from a dug wells with hand pump and a few would buy from the nearby water-refilling station. Some households are connected to the piped spring water system established by the Local Officials but the water is rationed and still limited. Along the highway, an average of 25-30 households share 1 water source. In the areas far from the main road, drinking water is taken from an open dug well or a protected spring. Purok Waling-Waling is the only purok that has no water source of its own and people would walk in distances even as far as 200 meters through dense grasslands and narrow roads on top of cliffs just to get water.  In terms of water storage and purification, the residents utilize covered containers, which most of them clean regularly, but not all purify their drinking water.

  1. Solution

To manage these problems, approaches must be focused on changing the negative practices of the community, mobilize the people, and utilize available resources to improve the situation of the water sources.

  1. Sustainability

Community involvement is the best way to ascertain sustainability of the programs that will be implemented. All throughout the process, from the identification of the problem up to the evaluation of results, the people must be actively involved to instill the sense of ownership and cooperation in them. The local leaders must also be empowered so that they will be motivated to guide the people effectively and provide independent decisions in managing the projects.

malnutrition update

july 2021 IMPLEMENTATION

             

 

                      Team Maras continues our actions against malnutrition, through collaborative efforts with the Barangay Council, members of the Barangay Health Station, and other stakeholders. For this exposure (or lack thereof because we're still implementing our programs from home), we focused on key aspects of the First 1000 days of a Child, such as breastfeeding and deworming. The bulk of the implementation phase occurred on the month of July, designated by the NNC as the Nutrition Month.

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                For breastfeeding, we helped facilitate the re-establishment of the Breastfeeding Corner. This will serve as a place for mothers as a lactation room, and a consultation room regarding the benefits and techniques of proper breastfeeding. We also ensured that the corner met the minimum requirements set by the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009.

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                 The national Nutrition Month also meant that a mandatory weigh-in of children aged 0-59 months will be conducted. This served as an opportunity for us to gauge the impact of health education to the nutritional status of the barangay's youth. Their recent Oplan Timbang data showed that 16% of children measured were Classified as malnourished, which is a significant decline from the 24% initially identified last January 2020.

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             Deworming of all children in the Barangay is another project by the NNC during this month, as a preventive measure against the deleterious effects of parasitism on a child's growth and development. According to the BHWs, they have given anti helminthic tablets to 100% of the Children in the community, including 224 children aged 12-59 months. The previous lectures on parasitism may have encouraged the mothers and caregivers to allow their children be dewormed.

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               Despite all these encouraging results, We are not yet done. Ambitions as it may seem, our goal is to totally eradicate the malnutrition problem in Barangay. And we will strive further to actualize this, for the betterment of the community's future.

           

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July 2021 Accomplishments:

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  • Weight Monitoring of all children under 5 years old. Update on nutritional status of 59 malnourished children on our baseline data

  • Establishment of breastfeeding corner in the Barangay Health Station

  • National Deworming Program- coverage of all children under-5 years old

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Upcoming Activities:

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  • Following the protocols of social distancing, wearing of face masks, disinfection, and limiting movement to only essentials in the context of COVID-19 New Normal Setting, the following upcoming activities are as follows:

    • Cooking show based on the principles of Pinggang Pinoy, 10 Kumainments

    • Focus group discussion on causes, risk factors, and effects of overweight and obesity on children

    • Conduct a feeding program in partnership with day care center, and a barangay-led feeding program

    • Quarterly weigh-in and monitoring of malnourished children (October)

    • Memorandum of Understanding by and between Barangay Council and MAMMs

    • Posting of IEC materials on exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding, and deworming on the Barangay Hall, schools and Sari-sari stores

    • Intersectoral linkages for the establishment of a communal garden

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