DOST launches PINOY program in Occidental Mindoro
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Paluan, a sleepy town on the northernmost edge of Occidental Mindoro, will be abuzz for the next few days as experts from the country’s lead agency in food and nutrition research gather up nutrition workers, mothers and children in the community for an intensive nutrition enhancement program.
This stemmed from the 2008 Operation Timbang findings that Paluan, with a population of 13,718 as of 2007, ranked fifth among towns in the province of Occidental Mindoro with the most number of malnourished kids.
The program, dubbed “Package for the Improvement of Nutrition of Young Children” or PINOY, was launched May 1 in this town, coinciding with its 101st Foundation Day celebration. The launch was followed by nutrition education training for Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS) by DOST-FNRI resource persons. The BNS themselves will later train the mothers and caregivers on breastfeeding, meal planning, proper food handling, and others, including hygiene and sanitation.
And for the three-pronged program’s third component, DOST-FNRI will hold a 120-day feeding of DOST-FNRI-developed complementary foods to children aged six months to three years old.
PINOY will also be launched in the nearby town Abra de Ilog on May 9.
“DOST developed this program purposely for children of said age group because this is the most critical period in a child’s life,” said DOST Sec. Mario Montejo.
Any inadequacy in a child’s diet will result in irreversible long-term physical and mental damage, so nutrition intervention is very important at this period, according to nutrition experts.
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Paluan Mayor Abelardo Pangilinan receives the training modules and complementary food samples from DOST-FNRI Director Mario Capanzana and Occidental Mindoro SP Board Member Antonio Rebong Jr.
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Paluan Mayor Abelardo Pangilinan feeds one of the child beneficiaries of DOST’s PINOY with FNRI-developed complementary food.
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DOST-PCAMRD holds Second National Congress on Philippine Lakes
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The Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development will hold the Second National Congress on Philippine Lakes April 27-29, 2011 at SEARCA, Los Baños, Laguna. Dubbed as the LakeCon 2011, the Congress aims to enhance public awareness, explore new perspectives and options for coping with sweeping development imperatives, build on existing knowledge, find better solutions to growing environmental threats and foster stronger alliances for decisive action.
The Congress has the theme "Building on the Pillars on Integrated Lake Basin Management" to create awareness on integrated lake basin management (ILBM) as an option that can be applied at the national and local levels and to help the country move forward strategically to a common framework for lake management.
ILBM is an approach that considers lakes and their basins as simple mutually-interacting management units. ILBM integrates six management elements or pillars resiliency, namely institutions, policy, stakeholder participation, technology, science, and finances.
The complexities of this approach require the converging in a single venue of the experts, key stakeholders, decision makers and financing sources to share their knowledge and experiences, promote collaboration and linkages, and build consensus on the future of basin-wide approaches to lake management.
In 2003, the First National Congress on Philippine Lakes or LakeCon 2003 brought together more than 100 stakeholders from government, academe, NGOs, Local Government Units and business companies who signed a declaration on their vision of Philippine lakes as heritage and pride of the Filipino people.
The Congress became a launching pad for organizing the Philippine Lakes Network (PlaNet), a group of individuals committed to strengthening partnerships and information sharing on the status of lake and inland resources.
Seven years hence, the country's lakes remain threatened by growing demands for fish, water supply electricity, transportation routes, vegetation and habitats and the perils from climate change, land degradation, pollution, flooding and population fluxes to shore land areas.
For more information on LakeCon 2011, please visit http://www.pcamrd.dost.gov.ph/lakecon/.
DOST installs automated weather stations in Vis-Min provinces
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The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) successfully installed automated weather stations (AWS) in four barangays in Bacolod and Iloilo, and two barangays in Jolo, Sulu recently.
Meanwhile AWS was deployed in Jaro, Iloilo City’s Agro-Meteorological Garden of the Department of Agriculture - Regional Office Field Unit VI.
In Bacolod City, Barangay Felisa received an automated weather station (AWS), while Barangays Tangub, Estefania and Alangilan had installed their respective rain gauges, according to City Councilor Mona Dia Jardin.
“AWS have a critical role in hazard mitigation in the country, particularly during typhoons and floods,” DOST Sec. Mario Montejo said. “These equipment will help the country save lives and property.”
Automated weather stations are stand-alone devices that measure weather-related factors and transmit data remotely on real-time basis.
DOST-8 Regional Director Rowen Gelonga said that more of these facilities will be installed in Aklan, Capiz and Negros Occidental. “Water level stations will also be deployed to get real-time assessment of flood threats,” he added.
Meanwhile, DOST-ARMM installed automatic rain gauge and water level monitoring station at the Walled City municipal hall grounds and San Raymundo port area in Jolo, Sulu, respectively.
One of the automated weather stations installed in the provinces.
Read more: DOST installs automated weather stations in Vis-Min provinces
DOST, DOH ink agreement on key health solutions
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The country’s prime agencies on science and technology and health are joining forces to give reliable solutions to crucial health problems that affect folks particularly in the grassroots.
One is the partnership between the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Health to fight dengue through the national roll out of the Mosquito Ovicidal/ Larvicidal Trap system.
Following its successful launch last February in Tacloban City, DOST through its Industrial Technology Development Institute is set to produce additional 500,000 kits to be distributed to 125,000 households nationwide.
This is on top of the 200,000 sets previously distributed to various regions last February. The distribution of additional OL Traps, according to DOST Secretary Mario G. Montejo, just proves that “the government is really bent on reducing the number of dengue cases in the country.”
The additional OL Trap kits will be distributed from July until December, in time for the rainy seasons. Each recipient household, previously identified by the DOH, will receive four sets of kits and six months supply of the organic pellets, all for free.
“With the additional OL Trap kits for distribution, we can fully cover all the dengue prone areas in the country, and make further studies on these,” Montejo added.