Yo ! Lead Project: End of Project Document and End Line Survey Published

Two published documents marked the end of the project Yo! Lead or Youth on the Lead.”

Started in July 2006 and ended on June 2010, the Yo!Lead or Youth on the Lead is a leadership program of the VPHCS for youth–initiated adolescent reproductive health advocacy and services in the provinces of Cebu, Bohol and Occidental Negros, Philippines that aims to promote increased practice of healthy reproductive and sexual health (RSH) behaviors among the youth.

It was funded by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA- International).

The end of project document (EOPD) entitled, “Yo! Lead: Youth on the Lead, A Leadership Program for Youth-initiated Reproductive Health Advocacy and Services in the Philippines” is a 40-page book that synthesizes the highlights of the project. It also includes a summary of the sexual and reproductive health initiatives of 22 community-based youth organizations and seven school-based youth organizations in selected schools and communities in the three provinces with which the project worked. Best practices of four organizations and the Youth for Rights Network (Y4R) are also featured in the book. Various literary contributions are also included.

The second document is an end line reproductive health survey among the community-based and school-based partner youth organizations.


The end line survey was a follow-up of the baseline study conducted at the start of the project in July 2006 – October 2006. The baseline study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs regarding RH and their sexual and RH problems. The results of the study were then used as the basis to come up with youth-friendly projects that truly responded to their needs and concerns which the project implemented with the youth organizations.

The end line survey was conducted before the project ended in June 2010 among the members of the same 19 organizations which participated in the project at its start. Although respondents may be different from those who participated in the baseline survey, it was expected that because of the inputs of the project and the participation of the organizations in its implementation, the desired goal of increased practice of healthy reproductive and sexual health (RSH) behaviors among the youth would redound to their new members until the fourth year.

Thus, the end line survey measured the effectiveness of the project and noted that there was an improvement of the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors regarding RH and corrected mistaken beliefs and unhealthy practices among the youth.

After four years, the project has more than a hundred trained youth leaders and peer educators from schools and communities in the three provinces who are knowledgeable on SRH issues, effective communication, project management, and leadership development.

Nursing students donate school supplies

Students organized under the Students Alliance for Community Health Services (SACHS) based in Tagbilaran City recently held its Third Pencil for a Cause Project in its adopted barangay, Caluasan in the municipality of Dagohoy, Bohol.

Some 30 students of different nursing colleges in Tagbilaran City distributed school supplies last Oct. 30, 2010 to more than 200 children of families who are members of the Hugpong Mag-uuma sa San Miguel (HUMASA) (Farmers’ Association in San Miguel, Bohol) and the Mga Mag-uuma sa Lakalsanda Apektado sa Land Levelling (MALALA) (Farmers in Lakalsanda Affected by Land Levelling).


The yearly community outreach activity of the SACHS was held during the general assembly of the MALALA in the barangay hall of Caluasan. Barangay Captain Rey Luchana also shared an update of his recent trip to Japan regarding the ongoing opposition of the farmers’ organizations of the Malinao Dam Project that has worsened their economic situations.

Members of the SACHS have always served as volunteers and partners of the VPHCS in its various community outreach programs and medical missions in its community-based health programs areas.


Barangay Caluasan in Dagohoy and Barangay Sto. Nino in San Miguel are current project areas of the VPHCS in partnership with the Asian Community Trust (ACT) based in Japan.

‘Free the 43’ - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

President Benigno Aquino III is concerned over the detention for the past 15 years of Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, a democracy icon like his late mother, former President Corazon C. Aquino. Last Oct. 28, while attending the Asean Summit in Hanoi, he urged Burma’s Prime Minister Thein Sein to free Suu Kyi, but predictably, the latter made no clear commitment.

But while Mr. Aquino seems to be passionate in working for the release of Suu Kyi, he does not seem to be very concerned about the detention for the past nine months by government forces of 43 health workers, the so-called “Morong 43.” Last Oct. 14 Mr. Aquino said the case of the 43 detainees would have to be decided by the court that is trying them for illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

The President has ordered a review of the circumstances surrounding the arrest of the health workers. The confiscation of guns and explosives from the Morong resort where they were staying showed that the evidence had been obtained through irregular means. He said that “it is a generally accepted principle that that what the lawyers call the fruit of the poisoned tree, [or] evidence wrongly gotten cannot be used.”

The Morong 43, their families and supporters have said that they were attending a training seminar on how to provide health services to poor communities when arrested. Their families said the detained workers were subjected to “psychological torture” by the military.

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