The Samaritan’s Purse in collaboration with the City Government of Manila launched their Primary Health Care Program (PHCP): “Integrated Community Health Outreach Program (I-CHOP)” and Medical Outreach on May 18, 2022, in Barangay 123, Tondo, Manila.

The PHCP aims to provide preventive, promotive, and curative health care and nutrition services to pregnant and lactating women, children less than five (5) years old, and senior citizens as well as management of diseases and other minor illnesses in adults. The program also includes health promotion education, and psycho-spiritual support to target beneficiaries in the Barangays 20, 133, and 275 in Tondo, Manila.

The Samaritan’s Purse aims to address the incidence of communicable and non-communicable diseases; (b) malnutrition; (c) poor coverage of prenatal care for teenage pregnancies; (d) immunization of pregnant women and children under-five; and (e) disruption of primary health care services due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the PHCP has specific targets, I-CHOP and medical outreach are open to provide services for all ages. During the launch, health and medical personnel from Samaritan’s Purse provided medical assessment, basic check-ups, and immunization for children.

The Samaritan’s Purse is a non-profit Christian organization that provides spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. It is a member of the Manila City Nutrition committee and part of the Regional Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Civil Society Network (CSN) in Metro Manila. The SUN CSN was organized to link civil society organizations with the regional and local nutrition committees for collaborative efforts in scaling up nutrition action in the region toward the reduction of stunting and other forms of malnutrition. (Click to read more: https://tinyurl.com/NNCNCRSUNCivilSocietyNetwork)

“Alam naman po natin na may budget tayo sa government to fight malnutrition, but with the collaboration with NGOs, we have more opportunity to have additional commodities,” said Ms. Emmanuelle B. Pabalate, District Nutrition Program Coordinator of Manila.

Ms. Pabalate added that, “with the support of the government, the National Nutrition Council, and non-governmental organizations, we can achieve our goal of ending malnutrition.”

For more information on the City of Manila, visit the City of Manila-Nutrition Coordinating Committee on their official Facebook Page through this link: https://www.facebook.com/CityofManilaNutritionServices

Written by: NO I Janna Alexia M. Necio and NPC Milagros Elisa V. Federizo