With public policies that guarantee integral and permanent services for a healthier life, the City Council headed by Mayor Renán Barrera Concha carries out actions and redoubles efforts to maintain and increase quality services that allow citizens to access a better quality of life.
In this context, the Municipal Center for Nutritional and Diabetes Care (CEMANUD), the only one of its kind nationwide, celebrated its fourth anniversary with a series of activities that included workshops and talks on health care, as well as exhibitions of urban gardens, health fair and cooking classes.
The president of DIF Mérida, Diana Castillo Laviada accompanied by the director Susy Pasos Alpuche, toured the facilities of CEMANUD where she greeted and chatted with several users, whom she congratulated and encouraged to continue with her health care.
During the tour, the president also observed the application of CEMANUD programs, aimed at the whole family.
“-In this center we serve families with conditions such as obesity, eating disorders or malnutrition, we also provide free treatments for diseases such as diabetes, which is expensive for a family of limited resources -” she emphasized.
Four years after its opening, CEMANUD is still the only agency of its kind in charge of a City Council. It currently has eight programs and more than 15 strategies focused on addressing the main problems presented by the inhabitants of the city of Merida.
-“The objective of this center that opened its doors on January 29, 2015, during the first administration of Renán Barrera at the head of the City Council, is to contribute to improving the nutritional status of the most vulnerable sector of society in the municipality, through timely detection and treatment of diseases related to the excess or deficiency in the consumption of food and nutrients” – Diana Castillo stated.
Through the Municipal DIF, the commune also collaborates with educational institutions in different events, such as the one that was held last Monday Jan. 28, in the auditorium of the University Cultural Center, in the framework of the Nutrition Week 2019. The special guest was the nutritionist Ana Bertha Pérez Lizaur, who gave the conference: “New Technologies in Nutrition Education”.
Part of the strategies carried out by the current administration focuses on strengthening the food security of the beneficiaries by guaranteeing access to quality vegetables, fruits and produce through programs such as “Community Urban Gardens”
Diana Castillo informed that during 2018, 54 training courses were provided through the program of orchards, and more than 14 species including beet, eggplant, chard, melon, radish, chilies in their varieties were harvested, providing in the first year of the program a total of 162 kg of vegetables.
She pointed out that the food education program “If you eat well, you feel good” has expanded by 80%, serving more than 70 schools where the development of permanent healthy habits is promoted through food education.
CEMANUD offers the food education application “MercaDifto Digital, a digital game in which children learn to eat well and feel better”, which, added to the Municipal Nutrition Guide, available on the Mérida City Council website: www.merida.gob.mx/MercaDIFto provides the citizens information to improve their nutrition.
CEMANUD currently has nine community soup kitchens to tackle the problem of malnutrition in the most vulnerable neighborhoods of the city, where 1,917 families were served last year, to which 111,581 servings of hot food were provided. Likewise, 2,195 evaluations were carried out throughout the year, obtaining 84% of continuous improvement in the beneficiaries’ eating habits.
In addition, to counteract the problem of obesity and malnutrition in children under 5, the City Council also carries out the Healthy Mother, Healthy Children program, with the objective of monitoring the growth and development of young children.
“-On average 108 patients are treated per month and we already had 21 generations of graduated patients, with a total of 114 who have learned self-control of their disease-” Diana Castillo said.
Also, through the CEMANUD’s Health in your Company program, 88 local companies have been assisted in order to protect the health, safety and welfare of workers.
TYT Newsroom with information from reporteroshoy.mx
