One Vision, One Filipina

When thousands of medical field graduates were shedding idealism and rep-lacing it with the realities of looking for a job and starting a career, one woman heard the call for sufficient health care in rural areas and decided not to ignore it.

Dr. Editha "Ding" C. Miguel resolved to do what she could about the issue of inadequate health care by founding the Agape (a Greek word meaning "divine love") Rural Program (ARP), to "develop a pool of manpower motivated by love for country, serving as catalysts and multipliers for health and development."

The World Health Organization (WHO) last May paid tribute to her vision and her untiring efforts by conferring the Sasakawa Health Prize to the ARP. The annual award, whose recipients are nominated by national health departments and carefully screened by World Health Organization Award Committee members, consists of a $40,000 grant and is given to persons, institutions or nongovernmental organizations for outstanding work in health development.

Established in 1984 upon the initiative of and with funds provided by Mr. Ryoichi, then president of the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation (SMHF), past Filipino winners of the award include Dr. Jesus Azurin (1985) and Department of Health’s Center for Health Development-Eastern Visayas (2003). Dr. Miguel shared her vision of a better and healthier Philippines through community empowerment to international health leaders at the 59th World Health Assembly and 22nd anniversary of the said prize in Geneva, Switzerland.

One of the ARP’s most innovative and effective programs is the Kilusang Kalusugan at Kaunlaran para sa mga Katutubo or 4K, a holistic health project in eight barangays in Sitio Ammas, Palawan, The community based 4K project, which recently saw the turnover of responsibility from the ARP to the local communities, is composed of five major parts, all of which are integrated into the 1,800 residents’ lives–nutrition; literacy; malaria control; livelihood, with natural farming and hog raising, among others; and potable water and sanitation.

The fund grant from the Sasakawa Foundation, which Dr. Miguel acknowledged as a great blessing from God, will help strengthen the sustaining mechanism for the 4K projects in Ammas and will be used in implementing the Private Public Mix Directly Observed Tuberculosis Short Course (PPM-DOTS) treatment program in 10 barangays in Puerto Princesa City. The ARP is an active participant in the National Tuberculosis Program, helping make the Philippines one of the first two countries to reach the WHO goals of 85 percent cure rate and 70 percent case detection rate, which are the WHO standards for TB control.

A staunch advocate of holistic health development, Dr. Miguel thinks that the ARP won the award for its effective and unique bottom to top approach, which is educating and training native indigenous peoples (IPs) to analyze health problems and address these independently. Indeed, Yohei Sasakawa, chairman of the SMHF, stressed in his speech during the presentation ceremony that they recognize organizations and individuals that have "gone beyond the call of duty, creating frameworks for vast improvement in health standards in the region they affect" by "improving health care in both medical and social fields."

As an internal medicine specialist with the Savers Multi-specialty and Diagnostic Clinic, Dr. Miguel says that proper time management, the multiplication process of training workers, and job delegation have helped her fit community service into her hectic schedule. More than 2,000 volunteers and community leaders have been trained on community based health and development through ARP. Asked why she perseveres with working in the rural areas despite much hardship and very limited material returns, she says, "When it is a vision from God, it becomes a lifelong commitment and not only a dream."

No stranger to tributes in community service and health development, Dr. Miguel has been honored with the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Medicine Alumni Community Service Award and Centennial Award for community service, Department of Health (DOH)-Pfizer Heroes for Health Award, Philippine College of Physicians’ Distinguished Internist Award for Community Based Service, and Gawad Geny Lopez Bayaning Filipino Regional Awardee.

She traces her involvement in community service to several childhood activities encouraged by her parents while growing up in Leyte which taught her to share her blessings. She was encouraged to collect tin cans to support a local lamp making industry and to hold rummage sales to help those less fortunate. Her family transformed their house into a refugee center during typhoons, and she taught neighborhood children hygiene by bathing them regularly.

Today, Ate Ding, as the active 40-something mother is fondly called by ARP volunteers, is already passing on the spirit of community service that she received from her parents to her daughter, as well as to thousands in rural communities as she makes a difference one community at a time.

For more information on the Agape Rural Program, contact Dr. Miguel at [email protected]