The second wave of the soft launching of the LRay Vita Kidz IV, a nutrition program initiated and sustained for the past four years by Camarines Sur Governor LRay Villafuerte intended as a tangible intervention targeting undernourished preschool children aged 1-6 years old, that kicked off last August 6, 2008 is nearly winding down to its successful conclusion until the end of this month as there are only remaining 14 barangays covering 4 municipalities that needed to be visited in the coming days and weeks to complete the 67 barangays in 20 municipalities targeted for this 4th cycle of the feeding program implementation.

       Duly implemented by the Provincial Health Office (PHO) under the stewardship of Dr. Bernadette Carlos as officer-in-charge, LRay Vita Kidz is a total nutrition program as it has other vital components supporting the actual center-based, supervised 72-day feeding schedule that will hopefully answer the need for proper nutrition amongst the very young and vulnerable population in the target barangays but will likewise effectively respond to the other connecting issues that affect the nutritional status of these children in ways that are realizable and attainable even on a short term basis.

       Such components are: deworming activities to prepare the children’s bodies to receive and fully absorb in their systems the high value nutrients and minerals needed for their growth and development; multivitamins supplementation to support the actual feeding activity; conduct of information and education campaign (IEC) on the mothers’ class for the duration of the feeding program; and vegetable seeds distribution to the recipients as well as the establishment of community gardens with the help of barangay officials in order to sustain the nutritional intake of these children way beyond the 72 days of actual feeding.

       For this second wave, the municipalities already visited by the Provincial Nutrition Team led by Catalina Austria, Nutritionist-Dietician II and Sylvia Rueda, Nutrition Officer II were: San Fernando (August 6), Sipocot (August 8), Del Gallego (August 11), Ragay (August 12), Tinambac (August 13), Sagñay (August 14), and Iriga City (August 15). Whereas scheduled this week ‘til the end of August are: Presentacion (August 20), Siruma (August 21 & 22), Bato (August 26), and Caramoan (August 28 & 29).

       For this fourth batch, it is targeted that some 3,300 underweight children will be given direct intervention even as it is also expected that by 2010, the program will have been able to reach out to about 15,000 children-beneficiaries thereby drastically arresting the high percentage of undernourished children in the whole of Camarines Sur. JMTS