PSFI Programs

Movement Against Malaria

Malaria remains endemic in 65 of the Philippines’s 79 provinces. Scaled-up interventions in the 1990s resulted to a 60 percent decrease in recorded cases of malaria. However, controlling the disease has proven to be difficult, especially in remote areas where access to basic healthcare services and facilities are limited. Prevention and cure is further hampered by widespread misconceptions about the disease, dwindling number of health service providers, increasing resiliency to treatments, limited resources to effectively control the disease, and competing priorities with other leading illnesses in the country.

Largely owing to our experiences in facilitating Kilusan Ligtas Malaria (KLM), which caused a significant decline in malaria-related mortality and morbidity rates in Palawan by 56% and 64%, respectively, we have been chosen as the Principal Recipient of a grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria – Malaria Component Round 5. The grant will be utilized for the five-year implementation (2006-2011) of the Movement Against Malaria (MAM), designed to pursue malaria control measures in the Provinces of Palawan, Apayao, Quirino, Sulu, and Tawi-tawi.

In partnership with the Department of Health, the World Health Organization, and Regional, Provincial and Municipal Government Units and Health Offices, we seek to bolster proven and innovative interventions in malaria control through corporate and public participation. MAM aims to reduce malaria morbidity and mortality rates by at least 70 percent in the 5 target provinces. We envision to reach as many as 2 million people belonging to vulnerable groups.

MAM adopts four strategies: early detection and prompt treatment, use of available technologies designed to prevent the spread of the disease, strengthening local capability to implement community-based malaria control measures, and building a wide stakeholder network to help curb the disease. MAM also spearheads the creation of the Philippine Malaria Network (PMN) which will act as the nerve centre for information exchange and dialogue; the backbone to hold together the key players from the public and private sectors under one leadership.

Lingap sa Kalusugan ng Palawan

In the course of implementing KLM, a malaria control program in Palawan, we learned that the ratio of doctors to population in Southern Palawan is 1:29,000; 1:66,000 in Puerto Princesa City; and, 1:33,000 in Northern Palawan. This necessitated the creation of a community-based program optimising local resource and expertise in addressing health concerns.

Lingap sa Kalusugan ng Palawan takes on a two-pronged approach. The first involves improving the competencies of Barangay Health Workers (BHW) through the conduct of trainings and provision of BHW Kits that contain essential medical supplies. The second involves public health advocacy and disease prevention awareness.

Initially, we implemented Lingap in Southern Palawan in 2003 which was completed in October 2005, reaching 1,106 BHWs in Southern Palawan, 224 of whom have been trained also in traditional and alternative health care. Lingap also provides Barangay Health Stations with basic healthcare equipment, such as blood pressure apparatuses, stethoscopes, weighing scales for infants and adults, height scales, surgical kits, and thermometers, among others.

In June 2005, Lingap was expanded to cover Puerto Princesa City and all the municipalities of Northern Palawan.

Impok pang-Kalusugan

Impok pang-Kalusugan (IpK)  is a health micro-insurance program designed to provide wider access to health services and facilities. It is hinged on the mutual responsibility of community members for each other’s health. PSFI, in partnership with the Institute of Public Health Management, began to implement IpK in 2001 as a component of the Malampaya Social Development Program for TALIM in Batangas. IpK is carried out through village cooperatives.

On 15 June 2005, PSFI, SIBBAP (Barrios Silangan, Ibaba, Batis, Bulihan, Araneta, and Proper), SIMCO (San Isidro Multipurpose Cooperative), BUBI (Buklod-Unlad Batangas, Inc.), and the Batangas Regional Hospital agreed to implement the Expanded IpK (E-IpK) which establishes an IpK Health Care Clinic at the Batangas Regional Hospital.

In 2005, IpK was adopted in Southern Palawan as an exit program of Lingap sa Kalusugan ng Palawan. Major strategies were enhanced to suit local needs while Local Government Units provided counterpart seed funding to start off the program.

PAMANA sa Pandacan

In October 2005, PSFI, in cooperation with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), Kabisig ng Kalahi, Department of Social Welfare and Development–National Capital Region (DSWD–NCR), Manila Health Department (MHD), Manila Department of Social Welfare (MDSW), and the Isidro Mendoza Health Center (IMHC), launched the Programang Pangkalusugan ng Mamamayang Nagkakaisa (PAMANA) sa Pandacan.

PAMANA sa Pandacan is an integrated health program. It aims to augment the health needs of the residents of the barangays and, at the same time, complement the services provided by the IMHC. The Nutrition Program, and Tuberculosis Directly Observed Treatment Short-Course (TB DOTS) are currently implemented.

The Nutrition Program caters to underweight children aged 1 to 6 years old. The program teaches parents to market, prepare food, and monitor the progress of their children. TB DOTS, through the active case finding approach, aims to increase TB case detection rate.

Operasyon Handog Ngiti

On 28 January 2006, PSFI and the Malampaya Joint Venture Partners joined BAHATALA (Bahay Hawak Tayo Lakad), Palawan NGO Network, Inc., and Operation Smile Philippines, in implementing Operasyon Handog Ngiti (OHN) which benefited 51 Palaweños. BAHATALA is an organization dedicated to the prevention and treatment of disabilities, and rehabilitation of the disabled.

OHN is among the Special Projects pursued by BAHATALA to correct cleft lips and cleft palates. Children born with facial deformities are all too often subjected to a painful life of loneliness, shame, public humiliation and disfigurement. Operation Smile gives the reason for hope. In the Philippines, and throughout the world, Operation Smile’s mission is to “create smiles, change lives, and heal humanity”. Volunteers help repair childhood facial deformities and, at the same time, foster private and public partnerships that advocate for sustainable healthcare systems for children and families.

Palawan Adventist Hospital Upgrade and Charity Program

The Malampaya Joint Venture Partners provided a counterpart fund to the Palawan Adventist Hospital (PAH) Charity Programme. PSFI oversees the implementation of the charity programme by the hospital. It focuses on mother and child care, infectious diseases, and burns and trauma. The charity programme allows indigent members of the community to avail of the necessary upgraded medical facilities of the PAH.

The upgrade of the hospital was a deliberate decision of the Malampaya Joint Venture Partners instead of establishing a stand alone emergency unit for the project. The use of the facility through the charity program is now part of the health referral system developed under the Lingap sa Kalusugan ng Palawan project.

Barangay Emergency Response Program

PSFI introduced the idea of having Barangay Emergency Response Teams (BERTs) in communities impacted by SciP worksites. The objective behind BERP is to ensure community preparedness in times of emergency and disaster.  BERP was first introduced in Batangas in 2000.  Community members were taught first aid skills, basic disaster response, and were encouraged to draw up emergency response plans.

In Pandacan, selected community members were already given fire fighting skills long before BERP was created. This and similar initial activities were systematized and expanded when BERP was adopted in 2004.