Blog van Jayson

Two participants were conspicuously absent during the follow up training on herbal medicine documentation ---medical doctor Merry Mia-Clamor and midwife Teresa “Tere” Quinawayan. 
 

                                Doc Merry Mia-Clamor during the May 2009 Documentation Training
 

It was like a reunion of community health workers (CHWs). Just like old friends, they embraced and shook each other's hands as they eagerly exchanged kamustas (hellos) and stories. 
 

 

In one of the workshop during the partner's meeting, we were asked to share experiences which ze think are succesful. I told thelm about the Filipino youth activists's web campaign at the height of the "Hello Garci" scandal which exposed the rigging of the 2004 Presidential elections in the Philippines.

The week before Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo delivered her final State of the Nation Address or SONA, was a busy week for the organizers of Gabriela's Muntinlupa-Taguig chapters.

On Tuesday morning, Gabriela organizers set up a makeshift booth in Sitio (settlement) Tuklas where they offered free blood pressure check up.

A “gathering storm.” This is how independent think-tank Ibon Foundation described the current Philippine situation amidst the global financial crisis and brewing political turmoil. In its midyear economic and political briefing Birdtalk, Ibon research head Sonny Africa and executive editor Rosario Bella Guzman compared the economic decline to what the country experienced during the waning years of the Marcos regime in 1984 and 1985.    

Grim economic situation

The use of herbal medicine is nothing new for community health workers in the Philippines, especially in the rural areas. The practice has long been part of the rich culture and tradition of Filipinos. Community health workers (CHWs) under the health program of Third World Relief Fund (TWRF) in the Philippines continue to practice herbal medicine and preserving and enriching its long tradition in the country. Skills trainings and education campaign on the use of herbal medicine have been widely conducted since the concept of community-based health program was first adopted in the '80s.

I followed her as she navigated through the labyrinthine alleys of Barangay (village) Tuklas in Muntinlupa, metropolitan Manila's southernmost city. She was carrying her big bag containing medicines, a portable weighing scale, a minor-surgery kit and other medical paraphernalia. Although her obvious Caucasian looks attracted some curious glance, she's no stranger to this place; I was. She was warmly welcomed by the women as if she were someone who lives there. The women spoke to her in Tagalog and she responded in the same language she has been trying to learn since the day she arrived in Manila nearly two years ago.

It was only six months ago since I first joined Advocates for Community Health's malaria control program training in Dilasag, Aurora but the the changes in the health workers' knowledge, skills and attitude were already very evident.