DVIDS – News – Philippines, U.S. Partner for Health Engagement to Empower Local Community in Dingalan

Amidst the coconut tree-lined streets of Dingalan, Aurora, over 120 barangay residents gathered for a neighborhood well being engagement held by the Dingalan Workplace of the Municipal Mayor and Philippine and U.S. service members with the Mixed Joint Civil-Navy Operations Job Pressure earlier than the graduation of Train Balikatan 24 on April 5, 2024.

The neighborhood well being engagement sought to empower the individuals by discussing numerous well being matters, together with fundamental life-saving strategies, psychological well being consciousness, and ladies’s well being. As a part of the engagement, the duty power donated important medical and dental provides, comparable to medicines, mosquito netting, dental instruments, and a CPR model.

“That is very particular,” mentioned Shiela Taay, Dingalan’s Municipal Administrator. “Our individuals are grateful; As we speak went past our expectations.”

Growing girls’s healthcare proficiency, the all-female Barangay Well being Employees had the biggest turnout for a medical occasion throughout this engagement, with over 90 individuals. Their neighborhood data helps a bevy of medical authorities at Dingalan’s Rural Well being Middle. Referred to as the “Frontliners,” these neighborhood girls enhanced their abilities in girls’s healthcare by means of a dialogue led by Philippine Military Maj. Johanaville Villanueva, communicable ailments nurse, and U.S. Navy Lt. Reena Mei Leech, obstetrical and medical surgical nurse, coated contraception and being pregnant. Leech, a Filipino-American, delivered elements of her dialogue in Tagalog.

The Frontliners additionally discovered about psychological well being consciousness and deliver it again to their neighborhood. U.S. Navy Lt. Jessica Strickland, behavioral well being supplier, and U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman third Class Nathan Regan, behavioral well being technician, led a dialogue on psychological first assist after a disaster.

“As a bilateral group, we’re dedicated to the way forward for this neighborhood’s well being care,” mentioned Philippine Military Lt. Col. Generoso Lintag, AFP lead for Balikatan’s neighborhood well being engagements.

Multiplying the neighborhood’s energy in emergency assist, the essential lifesaving dialogue promoted finest practices for tourniquet use. AFP Coastguardsmen, Dingalan Nationwide Excessive Faculty college students, and Dingalan’s Emergency Response Workforce members acquired the lecture. Dingalan, an unbiased fishing municipality with lower than 30,000 residents, depends on its Emergency Response Workforce for pressing providers. In 2023, they responded to 45 drowning and vehicular accidents. The tourniquet coaching, meant to stop extreme bleeding throughout emergencies, dietary supplements the Emergency Response Workforce’s basis of ordinary first assist, ambulance operations, and water search and rescue.

“It is unbelievable to be right here with my AFP counterparts to construct relationships with this neighborhood,” mentioned U.S. Navy Capt. Jason Blitz, U.S. lead for Balikatan’s neighborhood well being engagements.

Extra attendees included Municipal Catastrophe Danger Discount Officers, Dingalan Municipal Police, Bureau of Hearth Safety firefighters, and native officers, signifying the neighborhood’s dedication to healthcare schooling.

This well being engagement was held at one in every of 5 websites throughout Balikatan 24’s humanitarian civic help missions and serves as a strong testomony to the unwavering dedication shared between AFP and U.S. service members to work shoulder-to-shoulder, guaranteeing a brighter and safer future for all.

Humanitarian engagements comparable to this are a part of Balikatan 24, an annual train between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the U.S. navy designed to strengthen bilateral interoperability, capabilities, belief, and cooperation constructed over a long time of shared experiences.