Feeding activity kicks off nutrition month in Tawi-Tawi

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  --- Hundreds of ethnic Samah and Tausog grade school children in a remote Tawi-Tawi island town  were fed  in  Wednesday’s launching in the province of the observance of July 2013 as National Nutrition Month.

The pupils of the Patok-Patok Elementary School in Panglima Sugala municipality were also given vitamin-enriched chocolate drinks and educational toys. The feeding activity was organized by the offices of Mayor Rejie Sahali and the newly-elected Tawi-Tawi Rep. Ruby Sahali.

Panglima Sugala is one of more than a dozen towns in Tawi-Tawi, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Police and military personnel, provincial health office and local education officials  helped in the feeding activity.

Rep. Sahali, who was vice-governor of Tawi-Tawi prior to her election as congressional representative of the province, said she will focus on projects that would complement health and social welfare programs in public schools.

The lawmaker, who had served as social welfare secretary of ARMM from 2005 to 2008, said her office is also poised to embark on outreach missions during the Islamic Ramadhan season,  which is to start with the  sighting of the new moon next week.

Physically-fit Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during the month-long Ramadhan as religious obligation and a way of inculcating among them the importance of self-restraint to achieve spiritual perfection.

Physician Kadil Sinolinding Jr., the regional health secretary of the autonomous region, and ARMM Education Secretary Jamar Kulayan, also launched in Cotabato City Wednesday the regional government’s observance of the National Nutrition Month.

Sinolinding said the month-long nutrition activity was also launched by local officials in the Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, the island provinces of Basilan and Sulu and in the cities of Marawi and Lamitan. - John Unson