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By Nora O. Gamolo, Senior Desk Editor
(Editor’s note: Part one reported how members
of the informal sector participate in business ventures, despite
their lack of organization and capital. Examples of projects
mentioned entail developing a coco and nipa processing plant in
Quezon province, making bioethanol from sweet sorghum, and producing
biofuel from pineapple and agricultural wastes. Part two cites more
opportunities.)
Last of two parts
Preventive healthcare, including indigenous
health practices, can also offer economic opportunities for members
of the informal sector.
Primary healthcare refers to comprehensive,
preventive and participatory mechanisms that put responsibility for
health concerns in the hands of ordinary people, while conserving
and promoting indigenous health culture and practices. It also
provides health services and eliminates gender stereotyping for
community health providers, who are mostly women.
The local government, civil society groups and
community members will share management responsibility of one such
project, as proposed by the Women for Social Development, Northern
Samar Inc. and the town governments of San Isidro, Lavezares and
Victoria in Northern Samar, and the Philippines-Australia Community
Assistance Program.
To be implemented in Barangay Salvacion in
Lavezares, Northern Samar, the project addresses the people’s
dependence on government for solutions to their health problems,
limited public participation in decision-making and the lack of
knowledge and skills of barangay officials in participatory
governance by institutionalizing a comprehensive primary healthcare
program anchored on right food and proper nutrition.
The program seeks to overcome gender biases that
hamper people’s participation in community activities, increase
productivity by maximizing idle lands, enhance community
appreciation of natural medicine and promote scientific indigenous
health practices, and enhance participation of the community in the
delivery of health services.
Pine Tree versus dengue
There is a program designed to help prevent the
outbreak of dengue in La Trinidad, Benguet through intensive,
integrated and cohesive community action. The project aims to
produce natural enemies of the carrier Aedes egypti mosquito, such
as parasitoid wasps, larvivorous fish and mosquito-repellant plants,
like citronella and marigold.
After six months, the number of dengue cases is
expected to decline, and there should be no case of dengue in the
area after a year.
The town government will be the center of
operations, with the mayor and municipal health officer as program
coordinators, while the non-government organization Pine Tree will
manage activities. In time, the annual program will be integrated
with the municipal plan and given municipal funding.
Mobile Life-Learning Hub
The Mobile Life-Learning Hub is an ambitious
inter-agency project proposed by the Proposed by the Regional
Council for Research and Development Foundation Inc. The project
participants include the provincial government of Compostela Valley,
the Mindanao Science and Technology Centrum Foundation Inc., as well
as the regional offices of the Department of Science and Technology
and the Department of Education.
The project seeks to bring much-needed science
and technology services to far-flung communities and improve related
services by expanding the Hub, an already existing project in Lamdag,
Pasian, Monkayo in Compostela Valley.
The Hub aims to enhance the technical skills of
local government personnel and produce an employable or
self-employable workforce in a short time. It is designed to enhance
the capability of the Mobile Information Technology Classrooms of
Science and Technology department for mobile information technology
and training and services in that field. The project provides
training in science and technology in rural or hard-to-reach areas,
provide Internet access in remote areas, and provide on-the-spot
basic laboratory services, such as soil and water analysis and
library facilities to rural areas.
Besides local government personnel, the
clientele extends to high school graduates, college students,
farmers, housewives, those engaged in or want to engage in micro,
small and medium enterprise development, or just anyone who wishes
to improve skills.
The project provides a non-traditional approach
to the delivery of services and support processes, since it brings
technical services to where it is needed, even in areas without
electricity. It brings together several government agencies in close
cooperation with the private sector to expand the application of
existing cooperation for a project in seven of the nine school
divisions in Southern Mindanao, both in scope and the clientele it
intends to serve.
Since personalities in local governments change
every three years, proponents propose the allocation of permanent
funding from the local government’s budget so the project can
continue indefinitely.
In time, the project can be replicated in the
three other provinces and six cities of the Davao Region by
modifying the memorandum of agreement signed with the local
governments involved in the project.
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