Expanded Local Health Board Meeting

On May 21, 2019, an Expanded Local Health Board meeting was held at the office of Mayor Varias which attended by AWH as a member.

The agenda were the following:

  1. Presentation//Analysis of Municipal Primary Health Care Roadmap
  2. Organization of Barangay (village) Blood Council
  3. Integration of Barangay Voluntary Blood Council to Municipal Voluntary Blood Council
  4. Functioning of GeneXpert machine for TB program. Upgrade of air-conditioning system at the laboratory to meet the needed temperature for the machine.

Dr. Manzo, head of the municipal health center, reported the Mobile X-ray helped detect TB cases of tricycle drivers, senior citizens and barangay officials who are at high risk. Smoking and pollution added the risk to it.

She added the barangay health workers refer TB patients to her.

She reported the GeneXpert machine examines the phlegm of a suspected TB patient and multiple drug resistant TB patients. They can get the result within the day. The dry run of the machine will be on May 28 at the main health center. They are aiming for a “TB-free Alfonso” but admitted that family members usually do not report suspected TB patients to a health authority is still a major problem in the community.

Indigent Support

Another squatter camp was discovered in our own barangay (village) recently.  The residents consisting of 14 families are mostly from Samar Island, Philippines  and 35 persons including children out of 75 did not have birth certificate, which is a prerequisite for school graduation, application for Philhealth (national health insurance), etc.

In conjunction with RIMM (Rotary International Multinational Manila) since its core members are AWH volunteer staff and many of its general members are AWH guests as well,  AWH has provided support in obtaining birth certificates for those with none and living staples such as firewood for cooking, rice, etc. On March 9, twelve guests from Japan visited the site, initially providing an additional 15 kg of rice to each family along with goodies for the children as well as six sacks of firewood and 3 sacks of brown coconuts. They also bought and enjoyed the taste of the freshly made ‘taho’ (tofu with tapioca & syrup), which is their livelihood product. Firewood and coconuts are also provided on a continuing as available and needed basis.