Congressional medical assistance for patients in VSMMC

The VPHCS has partnered with Congress Party-Lists in providing medical assistance to patients in Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).

VSMMC facade.

The Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, and Anakpawis have provided funds from their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for patients to avail of in-patient, out-patient and emergency services including medicines, laboratory tests, ECG, X-ray, surgery and other medical, diagnostics, and laboratory procedures.

Separate memorandums of agreement (MOA) were signed last week by the Party-Lists respective congressional representatives, VSMMC medical center chief Dr. Gerardo M. Aquino Jr., and VPHCS executive director Dr. Petty Orbeta de Castro.

After being recommended by the Party-Lists local coordinators, patients needing medical services in VSMMC shall be evaluated by VPHCS medical staff who shall issue a referral letter for VSMMC.

Homeopathy training by Dr. Norbert Enders

German homeopathic Doctor Norbert Enders is currently in Cebu for continuing tutelage of the VPHCS staff on homeopathy and homeopathic services in depressed urban poor communities in Cebu served by the VPHCS.

Dr. Enders’ mission is sponsored by the French organization Solidarite Homeopathie in France where he is currently based. Dr.Enders has been teaching the VPHCS staff the practice of homeopathy and treating indigent Cebuanos with homeopathy since 2008. His last visit was in October 2010. With the knowledge and skills that he provided and the homeopathic remedies of his organization, the VPHCS staff has been rendering homeopathic services for common illnesses to VPHCS beneficiaries from its partner non-government and community-based people’s organizations.

Last Feb. 14, Dr. Enders started to check up patients in the presence of VPHCS staff as a way of their actual practicum on homeopathy. The staff were thus able to further understand how each patient is being examined and treated, noting his constitutional type, physical, intellectual and emotional traits, symptoms, personality and habits and the way the weather, seasons, times of day and his past experiences affect him.

Homeopathy is a non-toxic system of medicine used to treat illness and relieve discomfort of a wide variety of health conditions. It is practiced by health care providers including medical physicians, chiropractors, homeopathic physicians, midwives and many others throughout the world.

Founded by German doctor Samuel Hahnemann in the 1790s, homeopathy is the art and the science of healing the sick by using substances capable of causing the same symptoms, syndromes and conditions when administered to healthy people, treating like with like (Similia similibus curentur), aiming to stimulate self-healing processes.

It is a form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

Homeopathy uses over 2,000 different remedies which are chosen to suit a patient's characteristics, as well as to treat his symptoms.

Information on such remedies has been collected for nearly 200 years. Clinical cases and recent scientific trials using these remedies have been documented.

VPHCS partners with DSWD in health project

The VPHCS has partnered with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in implementing a health capability-building project funded by the Bayan Muna Party-List in five barangays in Cebu.

The two-year project, “Building community-based health programs in Cebu through training, education and services,” shall be implemented in Barangay T. Padilla, Barangay Ermita (Sitio Ermita Beach) and Barangay Pasil (Sitio Lawis) in Cebu City, Barangay Subangdaku (Sitio Back of Matimco) in Mandaue City, and Barangay Bankal in Lapu-lapu City. Beneficiaries in the barangays include 310 households in Barangay T. Padilla, 240 households in Sitio Ermita Beach, 220 households in Sitio Lawis, 160 households in Sitio Back of Matimco, and 250 households in Barangay Bankal.

The project works with people’s organizations in the communities, including the Pundok sa Sitio Para sa Kauswagan (PSPK) in T. Padilla, Ermita Farmers’ Association in Ermita, Pasil Women’s Association in Pasil, KALUWASAN in Sitio Back of Matimco, and Casia Matab-ang Residents’ Association in Bankal. They have health committees with community health workers (CHWs) interested and willing to be part of the project.

The project shall train the CHWs and promote health awareness of residents in the five areas with the aim to empower them in terms of health care delivery on common health problems that can be prevented in the community level. Basic health skills trainings of three progressive levels will be rendered to 75 CHWs in order to equip them with basic knowledge and skills to render preventive, promotive and selective curative care to the residents. The VPHCS staff shall also guide, monitor and upgrade the knowledge and skills of the trained CHWs in between trainings as they deliver their health services to the residents.

Health information classes on common health issues existing in their areas will also be delivered to the residents. Furthermore, the project shall deliver health services including medical check-ups to indigent residents in the five communities which shall serve as the practicum of the trained CHWs with the guidance of the VPHCS staff and volunteer health professionals. Medicines shall be solicited from non-government organizations.

The project is highly significant today with the prevalence of common health problems that can be addressed in the community level. It has been observed that people seek tertiary care in the hospitals when they are already affected with serious illnesses that could have been prevented in their early stage in their homes. With increased health awareness and capacity in knowing, preventing and taking care of their own health needs through home remedies and indigenous resources in their communities, the incidence of serious illnesses and preventable ailments can be lessened. Eventually, the high cost of hospital care which unfortunately is now generally shouldered from out-of-the pockets can also be lessened. In the long term, quality of life can be enhanced.

Medical mission in Bien Unido

About 175 children were checked up by a team of VPHCS during a medical mission last Feb. 12 in Barangay Nueva Estrella, Municipality of Bien Unido, Bohol.

The medical examination of the children included the determination of their weights, heights and visual acuity and check-up of general body systems and dental status. Urinalysis using dipsticks with eight parameters was also done. As a result of the examinations, children with below-normal nutritional status and those with visual, dental, and probable kidney function problems were identified. Those with other illnesses and acute problems were also properly managed.

Elementary students of Nueva Estrella.

VPHCS staff Jessica Pejo takes the visual acuity.

The medical team included Dr. Lizette Jamora, Dr. Grace Molina, Lina de Castro, Lourdes Geolin, Chester Lagado, R.N. Jessica Pejo, Luz Carreon and volunteer students of the Students Alliance for Community Health Services (SACHS).

A SACHS volunteer nursing student tests visual acuity of the students.

Dr. Lizette Jamora checks up a student.

Partners in the activity included the Nueva Estrella Farmers Association (NEFA), Brgy. Council of Nueva Estrella, municipal government of Bien Unido, Gov. Edgar Chatto, and Task Force Carabao-Germany.

A pose of the mission team.

VPHCS seeks accreditation with Bohol government

The VPHCS which has established community-based health programs (CBHP) in various communities in different municipalities in Bohol is seeking accreditation as a non-government organization with the Bohol provincial government.

It is now currently working to comply with the documentary requirements for the accreditation.
The accreditation is in line with the Local Government Code (LGC) which provides that people’s organizations (POs) and nongovernmental organization (NGOs) are active partners in the pursuit of local economy, and that local government units (LGUs) may enter into joint ventures and such other cooperative arrangements with POs and NGOs to engage in the delivery of certain basic services, capability-building and livelihood projects, and to develop local enterprises designed to improve productivity and income, diversify agriculture, spur rural industrialization, promote ecological balance, and enhance the economic and social well-being of the people.

With its accreditation, the VPHCS shall more actively pursue its health programs with the support of the Bohol LGUs. It can also avail of assistance , financial or otherwise, for economic, socially-oriented, environmental, or cultural projects, as provided in the LGC.

VPHCS staff talks to scholars on reproductive health

VPHCS staff members served as resource persons on reproductive health in a two-weekend seminar on reproductive health for college scholars of the Enfants du Mekong (EDM) organization.

The seminars conducted last Feb. 5 and 12 discussed human reproductive system anatomy and physiology, methods of birth control, and sexually transmitted infections. About 40 students joined the seminars conducted by VPHCS staff members Lynsy Linao, R.N., Dr. Erlinda Posadas, and VPHCS volunteers Jethame Paglinawan, R.N. and Chester Lagado, R.N.

The students are all beneficiaries of the scholarship program of the EDM. The EDM is a French non-government organization which helps children and teenagers of poor families to study in order to have a better life, get a job and help their families. The scholars studying first to second year college live in the EDM college center in Banawa while the third and fourth years students stay in boarding houses near their schools. Aside from sending the students to school, EDM programs help them to develop their personality with regular activities and personalized follow-up. The EDM college center in Banawa is managed by French volunteer Elise Dubec and social worker Dorothy Fortuna.

Mekong scholars during the seminar.

EDM was established in 1958 and started in the countries where the Mekong River flows. To date, the scholarship has helped more than 60,000 children in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, China and the Philippines. It has been in the Philippines since 1997 and has helped more than 3,100 children to go to school. In the Visayas, it has 45 scholarship programs in Cebu, Bohol, Negros, Samar, Camotes and Leyte which have benefitted more than 1,500 kindergarten, elementary, high school and college students.

EDM can be reached through its email phcebu@enfantsdumekong.com.

FACCHD members visit VPHCS

Members of the Fil-am Center for Community Health and Development (FACCHD) based in Pleasanton, California, U.S.A. visited the VPHCS office last February 10.

FACCHD Board of Trustees member Ernie Madriaga and his wife Terry, Bert Cruz and his wife Medy talked with VPHCS staff members and learned about its current programs and services.

FACCHD members Bert Cruz and wife Medy (second row, left), and Ernie Madriaga and wife Terry (second row, right) pose with VPHCS staff on Feb. 10, 2011.

They later visited Sitio Back of Matimco, Barangay Subangdaku in Mandaue City, one of the program sites of VPHCS and got acquainted with its community health workers (CHWs) and its ongoing health programs.

The two couples went to Bohol on February 13 and visited FACCHD Board President Dr. Lilia Hernandez and Pete Mortera in their home in Panglao and then went to Balay Kahimsog, the VPHCS training center in Baclayon. Balay Kahimsog which is primarily funded by the FACCHD through its various fund-raising activities, has been the site of seminars and trainings of different groups since it became fully functional in 2009.

VPHCS joins Bohol government in province’s development plans

The VPHCS has signified its active participation in the efforts of the provincial government of Bohol in achieving the Bohol's Development Framework for 2010-2013.

Bohol Prosperity Fair on December 10, 2010.

The VPHCS joined other representatives of civil society organizations and government officials in the Bohol Development Initiatives for Prosperity Fair 2010 last December 10.

Dr. Grace Molina, VPHCS Bohol coordinator (in glasses) with other representatives of civil society groups.

The fair witnessed a covenant between civil society and the provincial government to pursue genuine prosperity in Bohol.

The covenant aimed to pursue efforts to attain Bohol's Development Framework for 2010-2013 that emphasizes agenda on health and sanitation, education and technology, agriculture and food security, and tourism and livelihood (HEAT). United in this common aim, the civil society and the provincial government committed towards accountability, consistency, participative development and transparency.