The VPHCS traces its roots to two programs, the Training and Educational Assistance for Community Health (TEACH) and the Cebu Urban Poor Communities Primary Health Care Program or Operation Himsog (OH). TEACH set up community-based health programs in the rural areas of Cebu and Bohol. Operation Himsog set up CBHPs in urban areas of Cebu and Mandaue Cities.
In 1989, the VPHCS was born as a non-government institution that implemented both programs which were funded by the CEBEMO and Bread for the World until 1992. In 1997, the VPHCS started to implement a Women and Child Health Program in four municipalities of Bohol which provided health skills trainings to community health workers (CHWs) and health information, medical and dental services to farmers of the barangays. The Action Solidarite Tiers Monde (ASTM) in Luxembourg funded the project which continues until the present, covering several municipalities for the past decade.
The projects developed the capacities of CHWs of the people’s organizations in the communities to promote maternal and child health care and respond to the health needs of the residents. The projects also developed the capacities of the community residents to take actions regarding health and related concerns.
The CHWs provided information on family planning and safe motherhood, used simple home remedies such as herbal medicines, acupressure, water therapy and ventusa to treat common health problems, conducted family visits, led community health campaigns on environmental sanitation, nutrition for preschoolers, and herbal gardening, discussed health problems during meetings of the organizations and facilitated treatment of patients in hospitals.
From promoting primary health care programs in Cebu and Bohol provinces since the late 1980s, the VPHCS has also expanded its programs to the field of reproductive health.
From April 2002 to March 2005, under a grant of the Ford Foundation, the VPHCS implemented a community-based reproductive health program in Barangays Pasil and Ermita in Cebu City, and four barangays in the municipalities of Ubay and Trinidad in Bohol. The three-year project provided information, education, services and counseling on human sexuality and gender relations, responsible sexual behavior, fertility regulation, safe motherhood, reproductive tract infections and responsible parenthood.
Another project, “Leadership program for reproductive health in the Visayas” was implemented from October 2003 to September 2006. Also funded by the Ford Foundation, it developed a corps of leaders from the academe, mass media, health service providers, local government units, government organizations, non-government organizations, and grassroots people’s organizations and youth groups that organized and empowered their respective sectors, shaped reproductive health education, advocacy and service delivery and influenced local policies toward optimum reproductive well-being of the population in Regions VI, VII and VIII.
The VPHCS was a member of a consortium Visayas Reproductive Health Initiative (VRHI) that implemented the project. Aside from the VPHCS, the VRHI was composed of the Sociology-Anthropology Research Group (SoARG) of the University of San Carlos, the Media Advocates for Reproductive Health and Empowerment (MARhE) – Bacolod City, and the Association of Municipal Health Officers of the Philippines (AMHOP)-Bohol Chapter. The VPHCS worked with grassroots people’s organizations and youth groups.
From July 2006 to the present, “A Leadership Program for Youth–initiated Adolescent Reproductive Health Advocacy and Services in the Philippines” is being implemented, funded by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America – International. With 30 youth partner organizations from selected universities and communities in Cebu, Bohol and Negros Occidental, the project provided information and youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services to the youth and developed leadership and life skills among them. The four-year project ends in June 2010.
From January 2008 to June 2009, the VPHCS was given funds from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of the Philippine Congress through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and implemented a project, “Capability Building on Community-Based Health Programs in Cebu” in 18 poor communities in barangays in Cebu City, Mandaue City, Lapu-lapu City, Talisay City, Minglanilla, Aloguinsan, and Cordova. The project trained 100 community health workers (CHWs) on basic health skills, and provided health education and medical and dental services to the residents of the communities.
In April 2008, the VPHCS established a partnership with a French organization, the Asmae-Association Soeur Emmanuelle to render financial and technical support to improve the health status of three urban poor communities in Cebu City, Mandaue City and Lapu-lapu City. The first phase of the project consisted of gathering data on the socio-economic and health problems and needs of the three areas. The community profile gathered served as the basis to come up with the second phase of the project that consisted of basic health skills trainings for 21 CHWs, health educations drives, nutrition programs, provision of safe water supply and toilets, environmental sanitation, and health centers construction. The latter shall be implemented until December 2010.
As part of its sustainability program, the VPHCS started in 2006 the construction of a two-storey Center for Capability-building and Health Development in Barangay Cambanac in the municipality of Baclayon, Bohol. Funded primarily by the Fil-Am Center for Community Health and Development or the Tambalan, based in Pleasanton, California, U.S.A. , it is a resource center for alternative forms of healing like herbal medicine, acupressure and acupuncture, organic farming and a center for groups to hold seminars and trainings at a reasonable cost. The funds that the center shall generate shall be used for the various programs of the VPHCS. The first phase of the construction was finished in December 2008 and the center has been receiving bookings for seminars since then.
The history of VPHCS has indeed seen many challenges and trials but have been marked more meaningful and memorable with the continued support of the people’s organizations in the communities, its networks and development work organizations, the Board of Trustees, and many CBHP advocates here and abroad. The VPHCS knows that shall continue to face more numerous tasks and challenges as the social conditions of the people become more complex and critical. But then, it believes that the continued support of the people will give it its needed strength and inspiration to go on and carve more pages in the history of the people’s health movement in the Visayas.
