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IAMRAFI: Faith That Feeds
The Story of Community-Based Health Program of the Diocese of Ipil, Ramon Aboitiz Award for Outstanding Institution Finalist, RAFI Triennial Awards
By Joy Emma Masapequeña, Marco Paulo Trajano Deligero | March 28, 2019
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The run of the RAFI Triennial Awards had a notable array of individuals and institutions who inspired the lives that they have touched. They had different advocacies, but all of them shared stories that were worth sharing.
One of the finalists under the Ramon Aboitiz Award for Outstanding Institution Category was the community-based health program of the Diocese of Ipil.
This is the story of their journey as an organization — in using faith as an anchor of hope. Changing the lives of many people in Zamboanga, one community at a time.
The Faith That Started It All
It started with Fr. Federico O. Escaler, SJ, and his mission to establish a special ministry called the Community-Based Health Program or CBHP of the Diocese of Ipil. Together with the Medical Mission Sisters, they began training the pioneer Community Health Workers in 1981.
“They were the ones who trained us,” said Jocelyn O. Teves, Program Coordinator of CBHP.
The pioneer volunteers were taught basic information on good hygiene practices or herbal medication to alleviate maladies, which they later passed on to the communities they were serving. Early on, their focus has always been on health.
Teves recalled that “as early as the 1980s we already had various health programs but the partnerships were very loose, it was in 2008 when everything was formalized,”
CBHP’s initiatives were not only limited to health interventions. They recognized that aside from addressing the people’s physical well-being, they had moral obligations to fulfill as well.
“Back in 2008, we have this memorandum of agreement with the provincial health were we will commit our volunteers to help. We agreed that we will help in case detection through education and advocacy and then referral of cases (to the government treatment facility),” Teves added.
Strengthening Faith, Touching More Lives
In its early years, CBHP of the Diocese of Ipil focused on providing preventive and curative health care and reinforcements like feeding programs for malnourished children.
After more than three decades of service, they have expanded to providing livelihood projects designed to arm Community Health Workers with the right skill set to serve the people.
“Our intervention is to empower men and women in the communities through a series of training; we call it the basic health training…” Teves explained.
“Once
To date, they have more than 1,000 volunteers — mostly mothers and youths from the church. Each of them acts as the ambassadors of change, influencing the government to act by doing it themselves first.
‘We are here to fill in the gap’
Teves mentioned that their presence is simply to influence the local health board and, “fill in the gap… and start a dialogue in whatever issues that the community might be facing now,”
She considers it important to stay organized and to keep everyone in the know, especially the government, to ensure that the problems they have identified are handled accordingly. They know that they cannot change the system of the government in a very short period of time.
Now, they believe in the hopes that as long as they continue working on both the community side and the government side, they will succeed.
To her, it starts, “in the community –– to change the perspective of the people and on the other hand, these people can help to influence the system of the government according to their needs,”
The Progress Thus Far: Then and Now
Through their efforts, they have now organized a coalition of civil society organizations in Zamboanga, called the Zamboanga Sibugay Civil Society Organization for Good Governance.
“When I say good governance, we are not engaged only to the health issue but to the entire problem of the government,” she emphasized.
Since they work with the government a lot, they needed to identify the solution to the problem of poor implementation of some projects that they had lined up.
“During our meeting, one of their problems is the lack of manpower to implement their different programs and services,”
For instance, in their TB Prevention Health Program, medicines are available and ready, “but the problem is (the government) does not have the manpower to carry out these throughout until such a time that the patient will recover,”
As a response, CBHP of the Diocese of Ipil recruited more people into the cause and now have enough volunteers to augment and to help the government’s projects.
Challenges: How They Broke Through
Teves shared that working, as a Program Coordinator, for a non-profit organization is not as smooth sailing as some would think. There is a sense of fulfillment in knowing that you have given back to the community, however,
“We cannot disregard their other needs –– economic, sociopolitical, sociocultural,” she said.
It gets frustrating whenever they think that they have covered a lot, only to look back and realize that there is still a lot more ground to cover.
There is also the factor of being cautious so as not to be taken advantage of.
“We have to collaborate with them but we have to be critical
On Sustaining Committed Volunteers
They were able to break through those hurdles with the help of their volunteers who are committed to the cause of their organization. When asked how they were able to sustain such dedicated volunteers, Teves said that “it’s also a miracle because when they work on the church, the blessing is also flowing both material and manpower,”
“We have to live our life according to the faith that we have,”
They believe that “whatever we give, it is heartily served without any expectations in return. That is very clear to us, even to our volunteers,”
The volunteers, to her, are simply guided by their faith and there is nothing much to do but to act on it. Otherwise, there would be little to no point in living.
On Faith and Lessons
The Community-Based Health Program of the Diocese of Ipil has always operated with faith at its core. With faith, they were able to bring in people to support what they believe in, as Teves puts it, “this is not my program, but of the whole community which is why each and every one of them is very important,”
“The situation of a community lies not within other people, but within the community members itself,”
Aside from faith, for a program to survive, its members should also have the commitment, “madali lang sabihin na ganyan, pero kung wala kang commitment, wala sad mahitabo (It is so easy to say, but with no commitment, nothing will ever happen),”
“You have to realize that this is part of your life. This is your way of witnessing your faith. So you want to transform the community but you also have to follow the process.
Most importantly, as with anything else worth fighting for, “
Standpoint: Push Forward in Faith, Not Fear
The world oftentimes presents itself as a scary place. It takes an indestructible trust and an unwavering faith to push through every hurdle the world throws our way. CBHP of the Diocese of Ipil is an organization that serves as the anchor of hope among its beneficiaries, an anchor that reminds us to be strong amidst the challenges.
They have been vigorous advocates of faith and of change, hopeful that in their ceaseless efforts to reach out and help people, the people would be able to help themselves too. What is even more amazing is they are able to do this regardless of who you are.
We might not worship under one religion, but faith is a universal conception that binds all of us together. They never considered religion as a wall that kept them from extending their love to other people. They were never selfish nor prideful, for their eyes are set on one goal – faith that heals all. #IAMRAFI
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