The Davao City Nutrition Council sought to help end malnutrition in the city by strengthening the Community Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition implemented on 2013.
The City is the first and the only city in the country that continues to implement CIMAM in a non-emergency status.
City nutrition council head, Evangeline Ginite said that the program has been reaching its goal to reach out to all malnourished children in the city.
She said that most of the other cities and even countries only implement CIMAM during disaster or war.
“Actually, we are the only city that implements CIMAM in a non-emergency status, this is during the time of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte that it was materialized since he wanted to end malnutrition,” she said.
During the first year of the program, the office has identified nine severely malnourished children in the city, but after three months they have obtained 100 percent success rate and turned the kids healthy.
Ginite said that From January to June of this year they have enrolled 176 malnourished children, 65 percent of them were cured in just two to three months.
“We want to end malnutrition, that is why we were doing our best to feed those malnourished kids. We want to give this kids a better future ahead of them,” she said.
The city partnered with UNICEF to obtain Ready to Use Therapeutic Food that helps the children gained their lost nutrition.
She said that through the city’s partnership with the UNICEF, they have saved P4 million out of the P6.5 million budget that was released by Duterte in 2014.
“The budget was intended to purchased the RUTF, but since the UNICEF give it to us for free, we have saved the money and was used in the other things that the program needs. For now, we have complete equipment like weighing machines in all our centers,” Ginite said.
Last September, the Department of Health adopted the program and produces RUTF to cure those severely malnourished children in the entire country.
Ginite said that New York has recognized the CIMAM program of the city, adding that only few countries adopted it as their regular program
