SM Foundation conducts 84 medical missions in 2009

MANILA, Philippines - Eighty-four medical missions were conducted by SM Foundation, Inc. in 2009 all over the country, including 14 special missions in September after the onslaught of two killer typhoons.

Medical missions, aside from hospital activity centers, serve as the medium for the Foundation to promote its health advocacy.

Beneficiaries are carefully screened to include those who cannot afford the services of a private hospital and those who do not have access to a health institution. SM Foundation goes further by holding seminars during the missions to brief beneficiaries on disease prevention and management.

Aside from the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), local government units, regional health centers, and volunteer doctors, last year’s medical missions were conducted in collaboration with Ateneo de Manila, Saint Pedro Poveda College, Balag Foundation, GMA Kapuso Foundation, Bankers Association of the Philippines, ABS-CBN, Sta. Catalina College, Immaculate Conception Academy Batch ‘72 and the Kapwa Ko, Mahal Ko Foundation.

The missions are conducted with the concerted efforts of the SM family with mobile clinics playing an important role in the conduct of these missions. SM mall parking areas become the venue for these missions to benefit the communities around the malls. SM mall warehouses are used to store medicine gathered through the Gamot Para sa Kapwa project. The missions are headed by Debbie Sy, Foundation executive director, and Connie Angeles, executive director for Health & Medical Services. Volunteer doctors from the Dept. of Health, Red Cross and private practitioners compose the teams that attend to countless individuals who come to these missions. Medical cases that cannot be handled by the medical mission are referred to government hospitals and monitored by the Foundation.

The missions will continue; more doctors have responded to the call for volunteers; more companies and individuals donate unused and unexpired medicines to the Gamot Para sa Kapwa project and more people are expected to be attended to by the Foundation as part of its health and medical advocacy.