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Recognition for an innovative school-based health care program

January 12, 2010

The Essential Health Care Program (EHCP) being implemented by the Department of Education (DepEd) has been recognized as one of the world’s best practices in primary health care for school children. The award was bestowed by the Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD Expo), a United Nations event held recently.

The GSSD Expo has served as a platform for the international community to celebrate achievements, share development successes, and explore new avenues for collaboration towards achieving internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals. The Fit For School, Inc., a partner of DepEd in implementing EHCP, was selected as one of the three winning Southern solutions exhibited and awarded at the Global South-South Development Expo 2009 for its innovation.

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Former DepEd chief gets Int'l award for innovative school health program

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The newsclip was posted last April 8, 2010 in the Manila Bulletin Newspaper.

German initiative boosts health of Filipino school children

By Marit Stinus-Remonde*

Despite the fact that local Philippine television is cluttered with commercials for toothpaste, soap and other personal hygiene products, public awareness of personal hygiene such as the importance of daily toothbrushing with fluoride toothpaste and handwashing with soap is surprisingly low.
This low awareness, along with meagre household incomes and inaccessibility to clean, running water, often leads to inadequate hygiene, which in turn promotes the spread of infectious diseases like respiratory infections and diarrhea – still the leading causes of death among children in the Philippines. In addition, two-thirds of all Filipino children are infected with intestinal worms. The most striking result is that virtually all Filipino children suffer from tooth decay by age six.
Limitations in public-health-care resources do not allow the treatment of ‘non life-threatening’ diseases such as these, and private health care is highly difficult to obtain for a population beset by unemployment and poverty. The only realistic option for improving the health of Filipino children is through the implementation of preventive strategies on a mass scale.

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Project NARS (Nurses Assigned in Rural Service), Philippines

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The healthcare infrastructure in the Philippines reflects a disproportionate distribution of health workers and services in the country, where often the poorest communities have the least access to healthcare services.     Global demand for professional healthcare workers has put pressure on the Philippines healthcare infrastructure, which has seen an exodus of nursing skills.  The resulting general shortage of experienced and paid professional hospital care workers means that the poorest communities are even more severely impacted.

Project NARS (Nurses Assigned in Rural Service), funded by GSK, is a structured competency development programme designed to address these areas of neglect, by training and mobilising 10,000 unemployed registered nurses to the 1,000 poorest municipalities in the country and thereby improve the clinical and healthcare service overall.

UN cites RP’s health care program for school kids

by Philip Tubeza
December 21, 2009, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—The United Nations has recognized the country’s Essential Health Care Program (EHCP) as one of the world’s best practices in primary health care among schoolchildren, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said Sunday.

Lapus said the UN awarded Fit Fort School Inc., a partner of the Department of Education (DepEd) in implementing the EHCP, as one of the three winning “Southern Solutions” presented at the annual UN Global South-South Development Expo on Dec. 17 for its innovative practices. The award was handed out in Washington D.C.

“The eyes of the international public health and education community are on our work in the Philippines. Winning this award is an honor and great recognition for all those involved in the program,” Lapus said in a statement.

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