ANTIQUE – On the eve of Christmas, over 1,500 Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS) and Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) in this province each received P12,000 cash incentive from the provincial government.
The capitol allotted a budget of P19 million for the annual incentive which is mandated by Provincial Ordinance 2019-174 increasing such incentive from P2,000 per year to P1,000 per month or P12,000 annually.
“Ginpromisa ko kaninyo nga kada tuig taasan ko inyo incentives,” Gov. Rhodora Cadiao told the BNS and BHWs.
She commended the volunteers for serving as frontliners in the fight against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“Dahil sa sakripisyo ninyo, dapat lang na ibigay sa inyo ang dapat ay sa inyo,” said Cadiao.
The BNS program is a human resource development strategy of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition, which involves the recruitment, training, deployment and supervision of volunteer workers or BNS. Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1569 mandated the deployment of one BNS in every barangay in the country to monitor the nutritional status of children and/or link communities with nutrition and related service providers.
On the other hand, a BHW is a person who has undergone training programs under any accredited government and nongovernment organization and who voluntarily renders primary healthcare services in the community after having been accredited to function as such by the local health board in accordance with the guidelines promulgated by the Department of Health.
The BNS and BHWs welcomed the cash incentive like Melly Poborite of Libertad town. She said this was a big help to her family.
As of Dec. 26, Antique had eight active COVID-19 cases./PN
