One of the challenges for municipal governments in the Philippines
has been to deliver sufficient primary health care services
to the people living in barangays far from the “bayan.”
The municipality of Sulat in Eastern Samar is no exception.
For example, the main cause of mortality prior to1991 in
isolated Barangay San Juan in Sulat was diarrhea. Only 30
percent of the 150 households had toilets.
In 1991, this situation began to change when Sulat
became a pilot site of the Partnership for Community Health
Development, a joint program of the Department of Health,
and the provincial and municipal governments. The Eastern
Samar remote communities can and must lead in the management
of their own preventive and primary health care; that economic
and health problems and solutions are interrelated; and
that partnerships between the community, NGOs, and government
can help transform the health situation. Program managers
chose to focus on Barangay San Juan.
All of the partners met with the barangays to assess
their problems and to conduct leadership and organizational
training. Together, they built toilets improved water resources
and drainage, retained midwives and barangay health workers,
and constructed herbal and communal gardens. Trees have
been planted to preserve the watershed.
Today, Barangay San Juan has no more deaths from
diarrhea and there is a new attitude about health among
the people. Consumer cooperatives have been set up, a feeder
road has been built, and an electrification program will
begin in July 1994. Sulat’s government now plans to
replicate the low-cost Partnership in Community Health and
Development program in other barangays.
