Nutrition, health priorities of children's council

NURTURING nutrition among children, enhancing health in general and better access to health services are among the priorities of the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) in this year's National Children's Month celebration.

With the theme, «Healthy, Nourished, Sheltered: Ensuring the Right to Life for All,» the event kicks off on November 6 in Valenzuela City.

«We came from pandemic era which has greatly affected the overall health of our children — their physical, mental and emotional health. And because of the pandemic also, we saw the challenges in immunization. The fully immunized-children rating in the local government units has dropped,» Angelo Tapales, CWC executive director, said Thursday.

Tapales said based on the Child and Local Governance Audit that the agency is doing in collaboration with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the council should focus on the survival rights of children.

These rights include the right to live; access to nutritious food and health services, including vaccination.

«That will be our focus this 2023, and we will be working with various government agencies, especially the Department of Health (DoH), the National Nutrition Council, and our parent agency — the Department of Social Welfare and Development,» he added.

While it is part of the council's efforts to ensure close monitoring of the children's access to nutritious food and health services, Tapales said closer cooperation with national government agencies and the LGUs is the key to the proper implementation of its mandate.

He said the council is also working closely with the DoH to give children better access to the Mental Health Act of 2018, which Tapales said «was crafted only for catering the general public.»

«In case of mental health issues, physical health issues like violence against children, or those malnourished children who have been neglected, the public can call the CWC Makabata helpline number 1383 which was relaunched in October 21,» Tapales said.

The CWC will also conduct a Mental Health and Bullying sessions on November 9, at Robinsons Galleria, at the same time promote the Makabata help line.

One of the highlights of the