KORONADAL CITY, SOUTH COTABATO — The Provincial Government of South Cotabato has intensified its grassroots healthcare campaign by fully funding three specialized supplementary feeding programs designed to eliminate severe malnutrition and secure the health of pregnant women and infants across the province.
Liza Enamno, Provincial Nutrition Officer and In-Charge of the Supplementary Feeding Program, stated that the initiatives are structured to provide holistic, long-term support rather than just temporary relief.
She explained that the provincial government is deploying a comprehensive intervention loop instead of just handing out food.
“Through these three specialized tracks, beneficiaries receive a complete package of services that includes immediate food packs and multivitamins, alongside direct access to professional doctor consultations, hospital care, and sustainable livelihood programs to help their families recover permanently,” Enamno said.
The first of these provincial government-funded tracks is the “Buntis Alagaan, Tamang Nutrisyon ang Kailangan” program. This track targets 300 nutritionally at-risk pregnant women, focusing closely on teenage mothers and expectant mothers residing in far-flung unserved and underserved communities to ensure safe pregnancies and the delivery of healthy newborns.
Meanwhile, the second track, known as “SAGOP Bata,” operates as a targeted nutritional intervention serving 500 severely underweight children aged 6 to 59 months. This massive component has been actively mobilized across all 11 local government units (LGUs) of South Cotabato to maximize the reach of the province’s nutritional defense network.
Completing the three-pronged approach is the “RST sa Nutrisyon” or the Responsable nga Pagsagop kag Pagtatap program. This specialized recovery initiative focuses on 174 severely wasted children aged 6 to 59 months, providing aggressive nutritional monitoring and metabolic stabilization to pull them out of critical health risks.
According to Enamno, tracking and monitoring for the identified cohorts are already underway to ensure that high-impact health outcomes are achieved directly at the household level.
“This collaborative approach aligns seamlessly with the province’s commitment to localized social protection and universal health equity,” Enamno said.
Implemented under the strategic health framework of Governor Reynaldo S. Tamayo Jr., these interventions directly address systemic nutritional gaps, specifically targeting vulnerable brackets in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDA).
