Promotion of Environmental Health and Child Nutrition in Community-based Health Programs in Cebu
Since March 2008, the VPHCS has been working with the Asmae – Association Soeur Emmanuelle, a French organization with projects in the Philippines, to build community-based health programs in Cebu.

In March – July 2008, a project, “Capability-building on Community-based Health programs in Cebu: Phase 1: Community Diagnosis” was implemented in three depressed communities in Metro Cebu, namely, Sitio St. Mary Grace in Barangay Talamban, Cebu City, Sitio Back of Matimco in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City, and Sitio Salvage in Barangay Looc, Lapu-lapu City.

The three project sites are all urban poor communities. An outstanding feature common to them is the existence of local people’s organizations (PO) that have united the residents and worked for improvement in their living conditions. The three organizations in the communities are the following, namely: St. Mary Grace Neighborhood Association in Sitio St. Mary Grace which has 85 households, Kaming mga Lumulupyo walay Sandigan (KALUWASAN) in Sitio Back of Matimco which has 160 households, and Anakpawis Party-list- Looc Chapter in Sitio Salvage which has 600 households. They collaborated with the VPHCS and ASMAE in the said project.

The VPHCS has worked with these organizations in the field of improving their health conditions. Specifically, the VPHCS has assisted in the establishment of community-based health programs (CBHPs) in these areas, through the formation and strengthening of their health committees, equipping community health workers (CHWs) with knowledge and skills to render simple promotive, preventive and selective curative care to the residents, and launching of health campaigns.

A community diagnosis of the three communities was conducted in order to gather data on the socio-demographic profile and health conditions which were then disseminated and validated among the leaders of the people’s organizations who then planned with the VPHCS in formulating a project proposal to address the priority needs identified. The project, “Promotion of Environmental Health and Child Nutrition in Community-based Health Programs in Cebu” was the fruit of this joint endeavor.


The project aims to achieve the following objectives, namely :


  1. Strengthen the capacities of health committees, community health workers (CHWs) and the people’s organizations to manage their community-based health programs.
  2. Improve the environmental sanitation in Sitios St. Mary Grace, Sitio Back of Matimco and Sitio Salvage.
  3. Improve the nutritional status of preschoolers in the three sitios.
  4. Strengthen the capability of the VPHCS to plan, manage and sustain its programs and services.

Monitoring and collaboration visits and meetings with Asmae Visayas – Mindanao Coordinator Ms. Maud BERNARD d'HEILLY have greatly facilitated the implementation of the project.



Since the second project started on April 2009, capability-building has been conducted for the health committees, CHWs and people’s organizations in each sitio including trainings on basic health skills and health program management, and monthly meetings to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate programs. Monthly health education classes have also been conducted on prevention, control and treatment of common diseases in the communities.



Simple wooden one-room health center have been constructed in Sitio Back of Matimco and Sitio Salvage equipped with basic health equipment and supplies and information materials in order to serve as a center for the ongoing weekly health services by the trained CHWs.

Furthermore, environmental sanitation projects have also been implemented including weekly cleanliness drives and proper disposal of wastes.  Construction of  communal toilets  in Sitio Back of Matimco and in Sitio Salvage and a communal piped water system (Level II) in Sitio St. Mary Grace  is also planned.

The project also consists of the improvement of the nutritional status of preschoolers in the three sitios. A community kitchen has been set up in November 2009 in each sitio as a sustainable income generating project to feed the malnourished children for a period of time until rehabilitation, while selling cheap nutritious meals to the residents. Nutrition information drives complement the feeding program.

Children less than 72 months were weighed in October 2009. Results showed that in St. Mary Grace, 60 children were weighed and 15 had weights below normal, in Back of Matimco, 87 were weighed and 23 were malnourished, and in Salvage, 100 were weighed and 30 were malnourished. That is, there were 68 malnourished children out of 247 children weighed, or 27 percent.

Feeding of these children is ongoing at least twice weekly with the profit from the community kitchen. Monitoring of the names of the children, the days fed, and the food given is also done by the CHWs.

The project has helped the organizational development of the VPHCS. An organizational evaluation workshop and an strategic planning workshop were conducted on Juune 24- 26 and June 29 – July 1. These workshops consisted of a review of the annual assessment of the VPHCS for the past five years from 2004 to 2008, environmental scanning, a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), and the revision of the vision, mission, goals, objectives, strategies and programs of the VPHCS. Finally, a 2010-2014 gantt chart with program benchmarks and timetable was done. This was subsequently approved during the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees on November 2009.

The project is also working to strengthen the fundraising capability and resource generation aspect of the VPHCS through a fundraising specialist, Ms. Lani Byron, hired by the Asmae. Two fundraising training seminars were held in January and April 2010 and close mentoring of Ms. Byron with VPHCS management committee is expected in the coming months