ZFF partner-towns get cited for their health programs
News | by ZFF Admin
Since attending their health leadership training program in February 2009, three leaders from Dao in the province of Capiz have been actively implementing health programs to make sure every resident in their town receives proper healthcare.
The efforts of the three—Mayor Joselito Escutin, Municipal Health Officer Humbelyn Horneja and Vice Mayor Loreto Eslaban—have borne fruit and have not gone unnoticed.
No death among mothers or infants has been recorded since 2009. Cases of malnutrition and infectious diseases have been dropping. In 2011, they were among the finalists in the Galing Pook Awards for Outstanding Local Governance Programs.
The municipality was cited by the Galing Pook Foundation for “leading and managing health innovations.”
During the recently-concluded awarding ceremony held at the Malacanang Palace, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III personally handed out awards to winners and finalists.
Dao is one of the first set of Zuellig Family Foundation’s partner-municipalities. Since their first training module, the three leaders participated in three more leadership programs of the Foundation while simultaneously carrying out health programs targeted at pressing health concerns in their town.
San Pablo in Zamboanga del Sur is another partner-municipality of ZFF that has been consistently implementing noteworthy health programs.
For three straight years, a village from this town received recognition from the Department of Health for efforts in helping the country attain its Millennium Development Goals on water supply and sanitation.
Barangay (village) Kapamanok recently received a plaque of recognition and P150,000 from the DOH for being one of 32 finalists in the 2011 National Search for Barangay with Best Sanitation Practices.
Despite being a rural community, every household in the village has access to level-2 potable water. All households also have functioning sanitary toilets. Headed by its Barangay Captain Faustino Elcarte, households practice waste segregation and also have individual compost pits for biodegradable trash.
Other San Pablo villages that previously made it to the finals were Barangay Kondum in 2009 and Barangay Pantad in 2010.
The municipality of San Pablo is headed by Mayor Belman Mantos while its Municipal Health Officer is Dr. Hermeraldo M. Catubig, Jr.