ND Faculty’s Abstract on Nutrition Intervention Gets Accepted in Asia-Pacific Service-Learning Con
Dr. Michele A. Naranjo’s “Nutrition Intervention as Service Learning: Silliman University’s Indigenous Food Security in Philippine High Risk Calamity Areas” got accepted in the 6th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Service-Learning (SL) at Petra Christian University (PCU), Indonesia on May 28 to June 2.
Dr. Naranjo’s abstract cited SU’s Home Economics-Nutrition & Dietitics Department (HE-ND)’s long established and strong linkage with the local government through Dumaguete City’s Nutrition Office. In its Service-Learning (S-L) framework, HE-ND’s faculty and students help prepare the community in their emergency nutritional needs through the transfer of knowledge and techniques on food preservation and utilization of indigenous foods.
“…City Nutrition Officer Lourdes Taburaza noted that this S-L project from [the HE-ND Department] has indeed been very timely and relevant as the Philippine Government has been giving priority attention to calamity-prone areas…” wrote Dr. Naranjo. “This nutrition emergency workshop is important most especially among at-risk groups where recovery response feeding prevents further incidence of malnutrition. The focus group discussion is also a strategic activity to validate the community’s state of preparedness when a calamity happens,” she added.
The conference aims to convene leading S-L teachers, students, researchers, community partners, administrators, and educational policy-makers to illuminate and critically evaluate the impact of S-L and community engagement. It also provides a platform for exploring new ideas on S-L, through abstract submissions from select S-L teachers, students, researchers, community partners, administrators, and educational policy-makers
As a disaster risk reduction strategy and S-L activity, Dr. Naranjo presented HE-ND’s Nutrition Intervention and Indigenous Food Security in Philippine High Risk Calamity Areas as worth replicating, not only in other parts of the Negros Island Region (NIR), but also in the whole country.
