Villagers find ways to solve health woes

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — Facing financial difficulties, villagers here, especially women, have found a unique way to meet their medical needs.

Families can avail themselves of hospital services, each by cleaning five empty bottles a month, which serves as their contribution to a fund that enables them to acquire medical loans.

The fund is being administered by the Ligaya ng Buhay Foundation, a people’s organization created by World Vision in 1983.

From the sale of the bottles, the foundation builds up the fund, from which member-families get their interest-free loans for medical emergencies. The loans are payable within a month.

The project has raised P11,000 since it began last September, and five families have received loans as of last October.

Now, Ligaya ng Buhay has 1,434 members from nine baran—gays in this city.

The program was hatched through a tie-up between World Vision and Strategic Advantage, the social marketing arm of the Department of Health for the Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood Project.

The partnership involves the training of barangay health workers (BHWs) in caring for mothers and children and monitoring their health status, provision of supplies and equipment (including vitamin A capsules), nutrition education, and promotion of preventive medical practices such as immunization and regular intake of micronutrients, among other activities.

Twice a month, the BHWs and barangay nutrition scholars go to their assigned purok to monitor the health of families and gather information.

This activity generates individual profiles showing the health problems of every family in the community and the kind of information and medical services they need.

They are advised to visit the health center when it is time for their pre- or post-natal checkup, counseling or immunization.

A system has also been set up to make it easy for BHWs to refer difficult cases to the provincial hospital.