Mission accomplished

We arrived in Kidapawan, North Cotabato, Philippines on June 20, 2015. We did courtesy call to Mayor Joseph Evangelista, met up with City Health Officials, Pharmacy, Dental, Physician and Volunteer groups to discuss the detail of the planned medical and dental mission. We also met with the officials of our adopted school Puasinda Integrated School to plan for building of new kitchen and start the year long feeding program. We also visited a women shelter to assess how our foundation can help these young women who are victim of violence. We also coordinated with City officials for other proposed programs like eLearning facility, scholarship and building of infrastructures.

Overall we conducted the biggest medical/dental mission ever held in Kidapawan City. We attended and served 1,629 patients during the 2 day medical mission.  This experience definitely changes ones perspective and purpose in life and truly humbled me and my family.

Courtesy call to the office of the mayor

Courtesy call to the city mayor was completed. Proposal openly discussed with Mayor Joseph Evangelista and he readily accepted the plan. He suggested that coverage of the mission to be expanded and not limited to 2- 3 barrios. To be more effective, he recommended focusing more on indigent and very sick patients only. Currently, assigned city health workers/midwives are already working in the barangay to identify prospective patients. The health workers and barangay captain will coordinate to the city administrator the number of possible patients which is expected to be around 400 medical patients and 100 dental patients. Transportation will be provided to assist residents from remote areas. The plan is to assign a vehicles to designated areas to transport patients to venue and then back to their area of residence.The city administrator will be the main contact and will able to give more detailed information at a closer date. 

Kidapawan City Hospital Out Patient Department

The present situation of the Outpatient Department (OPD) of the city hospital was also discussed. A new building is under construction and expected to be completed within a year. However the present condition of patients seeking consult in the OPD was deemed to be not acceptable. Patients were asked to wait outside the old building due to high volume and limited space. No triage personnel available for the patients while waiting for their number to be called. Patients presenting with different symptoms  are waiting in the same area which can present possible cross contamination.  There was no available handwashing area, toilets and any other comforting facility. Patients will need to walk along the hospital hallway to avail of handwashing and toilet areas. Although a new OPD building is under construction, the system will remains the same. So there is a high probability that patient seeking consults for cough and cold can come home with diarrhea or other illnesses. 

The project coordinator requested if a handwashing area and a toilet can be constructed outside the building under the foundation’s aide. This will be presented to the board and city health officer will be informed when approved.

Since the consultation for outpatients were being performed at the hospital hallway, privacy is next to impossible.

Informal meeting with the rural health workers. Their role in the promotion of health and wellbeing is very vital as they provide first hand communication of the general health and living condition of each barangay.

I can't imagine that the maternal teaching literally happens in the ground level.

Puasinda Feeding Project

   March 10, 2015:

1. Population- 290 students

2. Number of Girls and Boys- to be determined

3. Discussed with school principal proposed feeding program

4. Assessed the school's ability to provide decent meals to each student. The cooking station of the school clearly looks dilapidated and not acceptable. It was proposed to the board that a fully functional kitchen with handwashing area should be provided for.

 Currently, the classrooms were being used as dining hall.    

The feeding program- Mr. Gualdalcuever, Principal, who represents the Puasinda Integrated School, stated that the previous sponsorship for school nutritional program has expired and they are currently looking for a possible replacement. The population for this school is around 290 students however the previous sponsor only allocated meal  for only 40 children who were considered malnourished. The location of school is only few miles from the highway and is accessible by any kind of transportation.

Majority of the residents were indigenous people from the Manobo tribe. The main staple foods of the community are root crops, corn, rice, home grown vegetables and some fish and meat. Most family eat only one or twice a day. Some choose to bring food and consume it for both breakfast and lunch.  Lunch is usually skipped while students stayed in school for 6 hour. The proposal by the school principal was submitted on his behalf and reviewed. The nutritional plan was acceptable and the cost was minimal. This will be presented to the board.

As of last year, a local organization helped the school on its dental program, however due to shortage of funding, they were only provided with toothpaste shared by the whole school. The teacher help facilitate distribution of toothpaste.  The kids are able to brush their teeth once a day except on weekends when the school is closed.

It was presented to the board to provide a dentist at least once a year and dental supplies from WLJI.

Pictures provided by school principal.

Three hundred fifty CARE PACKS will be distributed to the less privileged kids.  A backpack containing a shirt, short, slippers, shoes, underwear, comb, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, comb, notebook, pencil, pen, crayon and eraser will be given to deserving kids.  The items shown above are just the partial items gathered during the meeting.

This structure used to be the school canteen. We are proposing for the demolition of the structure and building of  a new fully functional kitchen.

The school current condition is beyond repair.

Currently, the students are forced to use a makeshift building and cramped up space being shared by two different grades. 

Education

The eLearning facility.

Education was also briefly discussed. The mayor is willing to provide a space for eLearning facility offered to deserving indivduals. This facility will be equipped with 5-8 desktop computers, 1-2 laser printers and probably one audiovisual. The staff will be provided by the city. Participating kids who completed the training will be awarded with a certificate of completion that will be acceptable in applying jobs. He assured that the program will be recognized by the Department of Education. This suggestion will be discussed to the  board member including the costs. I  suggest that the computer facility will be named “Merlita Alparaque eLearning school” in memoriam to one generous well loved woman of Kidapawan.

The proposed eLearning facility needs minor repair and also security. The office of the mayor will shoulder the costs of repair.

Kidapawan City Hospital

The main hospital and outpatient department is short of essential medical equipments. There was only one available thermometer, BP apparatus and stethoscope for the whole ward. A single nebulizer is shared by the whole hospital. There was no weighing scale in the ward. There was no diagnostic set seen in each department.

The ward was shared by several patients with different ailments. The hospital beds that were previously donated provided so much comfort compared to the old beds however over crowding and ventilation is still a problem .

The Emergency room medicine cabinets  need replenishing of supplies.

Antiquated medical equipments and rusty furnitures badly needs replacement.

This nebulizer needs to be replaced.