(My Tho City, Tien Giang Province, Viet Nam)
Under the Urban Resilience for Climate Extremes (URCE) Program, ADPC in partnership with the Viet Nam Disaster Management Authority (VNDMA) and National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) conducted a 3-day Nutrition in Emergencies (NIE) Training of Trainers introductory training course for city-level authorities in My Tho City, Viet Nam. The course was held from 23 to 25 August 2022.
The NIE course was one of the training needs identified for local health personnel and relevant key actors during the City Resilience Assessment and Capacity/Training Needs Assessment undertaken in the two URCE target cities (My Tho and Nam Dinh) last May 2022.
The need for the training was recognized by a health specialist from Tien Giang Province Communicable Diseases Center who said “There should be such training for the leaders so that they will understand more about nutrition and nutrition in emergencies so that technical people can easily work and consult whenever disasters happen”.
The main objectives of NIE training were to provide the trainees with basic knowledge of nutrition in emergencies including concepts, principles, main nutrition problems, and the process of nutrition assessment in emergencies. The course also provided the trainees with basic orientation of nutrition interventions in emergencies, specifically on infant and young child feeding, the management of acute malnutrition including mental health, and gender-responsive approaches to emergency nutrition. The course facilitated the development of the preparedness and response plan for NIE for My Tho city. The final key objective of the course was to identify several trainers who will be able to conduct the NIE training within their own organizations and to other stakeholders. 15 (9 female (60%) and 6 male (40%)) were identified as the core team of trainers for nutrition in emergencies in My Tho city, Viet Nam.
The course was attended by 36 participants (24 female (67%) and 12 male (33%)) representing the Provincial Department of Health, Provincial Center for Disease Control, City Health Center, selected Communal Health Stations and Wards, and representatives from other relevant sectors at provincial and city levels such as the Commanding Committee for Disaster Management, WASH, construction, education, and finance.
After the training a health staff member from the My Tho Community Health Station stated “Thank you to the lovely teachers and the course organizers for providing such a useful and practical course that we can apply in our actual work. Such courses should be conducted more”.
The training for the URCE Program target city of Nam Dinh will follow in the month of September 2022.
