Communiy Service Unit on its Monthly Meeting

                   There is always a call for improvement. A CSU (Community Service Unit) Meeting was conducted on March 30, 2014 at Waling2x 1, MTRC Building 2, DMSF, Davao City. The whole day activity is for the updating and reporting of accomplishments for the month of March.

                   The Community Service Unit (CSU) as part of the Davao Medical School Foundation(DMSF) responsible for community projects have been operating in areas of Mindanao primarily in poor and unprivileged communities. CES, CEPGov, BLT, IP-MNCHN and IMPACT are existing projects that is on the first and second years of operation. A total of 39 participants attended the said activity. Project Highlight, Unit Annual Operation Plan (AOP), Schedules and Updates and other matters are among the things that are covered by the said activity.

       Every Project presented the accomplishments and other highlights for the month of March. IMPACT, as a new project, delivered the project Orientation while the AMCCAP, on its gradual phase out reported the general accomplishments and stressed out the big impact that the project bring to the community. The activity resulted to the identification of plans and targets per Key Results Area which is vital to the entire operation of the IPHC. The people-centered approach was emphasized in the activity. Community Organizers and OJT’s embarked additional knowledge to take extra effort in the field.

                    The next CSU Meeting will be at the end of the month of April. The said activity was made possible through the effort of every project unit. IMPACT was assigned as the Relational Committee, IP-MNCHN for the food and venue, CES for Boarder and CFJ for Documentation. All the projects worked together for the attainment of the meeting.

          With the joyous smile and heartfelt appreciation expressed by the participants, the activity achieved its desired outputs.

Basic Steps Towards Global Development

Days became hours as to minutes became seconds. My adventure and breath taking experiences have been so amazing. I can see myself enjoying every single event that happened for the last month. There were things that have been in my mind for days that I know could help me in this field. As a community organizer, I am very happy that there will be new faces, new group of people who will be part of my life, new set of problems to face and new success to strive for excellence.

It is glad to know that once again I will be involved with the people from the regional down to the barangay level that will help us hand in hand in delivering the project. Tuberculosis has been a problem to developing communities and there have a pragmatic decline in detection and cure rate based on the Philippine Target Plan on TB control. Therefore, a project Innovations and Multi-sectoral Partneships To Achieve Contro on Tuberculosis (IMPACT) funded by the United StatesAgency for International Development (USAID) was established to intensify the case findings to increase the detection and the cure rate. With the Philippine Businessfor Social Progress (BPSP) an agency entrusted by the said funder to deliver the project. The Technical Assistance Providers (TAP’s) happened to be the sub-contractor of the PBSP for proper implementation of the said project.

Davao MedicalSchool Foundation, Inc. (DMSFI) is one of the NGO’s who will help realize the said project. An institution located at Davao City that caters medical courses with a hospital and the Institute of Primary Health Care (IPHC). The IPHC responsible for giving humanitarian and primary health services to the community for over 30 years. DMSF took the challenge to become the sub-contractor of the PBSP. The school’s representatives have been attending Trainings and Seminars initiated by the said contractor.

The recently concluded Training of Trainers was a starting point towards the achievement of the project. The DMSF participated the said activity held on March 11-13, 2015 at Bayleaf Hotel, Intramuros, Manila. Six participants including the Project Manager, Cynthia Manlapus and five Community Organizers enjoyed the whole experience. Among the topics discussed was the Basic Facts about TB, The Revised Manual of Procedure and the Training and Facilitation. A demonstration of the topics on training of CBO’s was presented by every participating NGO’s; RIT/JATA, PHANSUP, WESADEF, KINASANG-AN and DMSF.

On March 24, 2015 a closed door meeting with the Area Coordinator Sharlene April  Jalandra and the DMSF IMPACT Team was conducted to formally initiate the plan and primary tasks. The DMSF team will be introduced by the area coordinator to the Provincial Health Office of Davao Oriental on March 25, 2015 at Mati City. The said activity is expected to have outputs, this includes the name of municipalities that will be covered by the project and determining existing Community Based Organizations.

           On the 25th of March the Team Mindanao for IMPACT project headed to Mati City for a courtesy call. Spearheded by Dr. Ted Yu, Team Leader for Mindanao together with the Project Management Corrdinator of IPHC and DMSF's IMPACT project head, Cynthia Manlapus. A short but meaty conversation commenced during the meeting. The tentative areas are municipalities of Baganga, Taragona, Caraga, Cateel, Boston, Manay. These municipalities will be the pilot areas. One of the things that was set during the meeting was the upcoming Courtesy call to the Governeor of Davao Oriental and the Provicial Orientation to be attended by the Municipal Mayors, Nurses, PHO staff and other medical practitioners of the province.

I will give you updates on the next day entry of my blog. Thank you so much!

Training of Trainers for TB Educators

Activity: Training of Trainers

Date: March 11-13, 2015

Venue: Bayleaf Hotel, Intramuros, Manila

Training of Trainers for TB (Tuberculosis) Educators was conducted to capacitate the Technical Assistance Providers (TAP’s) as part of the procedure before the project will be delivered. NGO’s from Luzon Visayas and Mindanao came together for the said training. PHANSUP, WESADEF, KSFI, RITJATA and DMSF were the NGO’s present during the training. The IMPACT (Innovations and Multi-Sectoral Partnership toAchieve Control of Tuberculosis) team headed by the Project Mobilization Specialist Mr. Mario together with the staff who happens to be the resource persons of the activity. Dr. Ronnie Marfe, doctor of pathology, was also present to discuss basic facts about TB.

On the first day (March 11, 2015) of the training topics were Discussion/Clarification on the scope of work and deliverables of NGO TAPs, IMPACT’s Technical/Training Assistance to the NGO TAP’s and Proposed schedule, Discussed on the Template of Inception Report cum M&E Plan. A brief introduction of Tuberculosis was also presented.  Participants were able to identify TB symptomatic and other relevant information was discussed. On the second day of the said training participants continue to discuss the Monitoring and Supervision of the CBO’s; Orientation on the Referral, Reporting and Recording System CBO to RHU/Barangay Health Station and followed by Action Plan and Strategies and then ended with the Tips of Training and Facilitating presented by Mr. Dino Subingsubing, Training Specialist of the IMPACT. At the end of the mentioned activities participants learned how the Referral and Monitoring System of the CBO’s  work, strategies that will be employed and the skills on training and capacitating the CBO’s. The remaining time was allotted for the team demonstration; this will determine how the TAP’s perform the training.

On the last day of the activity, demonstration was continued. The whole day was allotted for demonstration and then the concluding part of the activity. The event was successfully conducted and achieved its main goal. Participants were able to learn different things in Tuberculosis especially in the procedure of delivering the project. At exactly 4:00 pm the DMSF team immediately went home. The three day activity have helped every participants understand the totality of the project. The activity was made possible with the concentrated efforts of the BPSP and the participating NGO’s. The laughter and ideas shared proved that the participants have been able to learn and enjoyed the whole duration of the activity.