More than 1,000 residents of Barangay Mangsee in Balabac town received free health care services during a two-day medical mission conducted by Remote Area Medical-Philippines (RAM-Philippines) in cooperation with the Western Command (Wescom), through its dental services unit, the Civil Military Operations Unit of the Western Naval Command (CMOU-WesNavCom), and other Wescom operation-controlled units in Palawan on May 22–23.
RAM-Philippines brought 13 medical and non-medical volunteers from different fields of specialization who performed medical check-ups in pediatrics, ophthalmology, internal medicine, OB-Gynecology, physical therapy, dental services, surgery, and circumcision.
Dr. Heidi Sampang of RAM-Philippines said she organized the group back in 2017 to extend free medical services to people in geographically isolated, disadvantaged, and conflict-affected areas (GIDAS).
“We believe as a group that health care is a human right. So regardless of where you were born or ano ang kita o trabaho, you should have the right to basic health care,” Sampang said.
“So ang ginagawa namin, dinadala ko yung mga medical volunteers in different specializations para nasa community na kami to serve. Para hindi na sila umalis, kami na ang pumupunta sa kanila,” she added.
Moreover, Sampang explained that aside from the medical services, they also conduct health care education. She said that being a remote area, they expect health literacy to be low among the residents.
She also noted that health education in terms of prevention is lacking “kasi because of the culture and practice that people only seek medical attention when they get sick.”
“Sa remote areas na ganyan, it’s the harsh reality na wala talagang masyadong doctor kasi nga, usually they practice kung saan maraming tao, sa urban areas. So with that, kung walang doctors, yung health education, yung health literacy ng mga tao is not adecquate, hindi sapat,” she stated.
“So what we do right now is actually to prevent people from getting sick para hindi na tayo umabot sa kalamidad na nararanasan. So we’re (also) here to educate people in terms of hypertension, ano yung tamang lifestyle, diet and kung paano i-take yung medicines,” she added.
She also said that aside from Mangsee, the group has already been to Linapacan and San Vicente, as well as other provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao.
“This is our 60th clinic since I’ve started in 2017. We’ve done Sulu seven or eight times. Galing na kami sa Basilan three times, Samar, Marawi, Malapascua, Linapacan. So marami na kaming napuntahan and hopefully, marami na kaming natulungan,” she said.
