AMOMA: To Care, Nurture, or Cherish – Philippines (AMSA-Philippines)

Name of the activity: AMOMA: To Care, Nurture, or Cherish

Country/NMO: Philippines (AMSA-Philippines)

Program: Health Systems

Type of the activity: Education

General description:

Amoma is a community development and community-enabling project by AMSA-SOMA geared towards improving the health resilience of this island community while at the same time, nurturing future physicians who are willing to serve the community. A baseline survey was done to identify the primary health problems in the community and our interventions will be based in these health problems. Through our intervention, we seek to educate and empower the people in the community so that they may be more resilient and independent in the future. We are tapping other key players to ensure sustainability of better access to quality health care in this rural island community even though the project is over.

Focus area:

Rural/community health

Problem statement:

Access to quality health care services is difficult in the rural areas in Cebu, especially in towns separated from the main island like the town of Bantayan Island.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

Gawad Kalinga Community, Brgy. Tikad, Bantayan Island, Cebu, Philippines

Objectives and indicators of success:

GOAL 1: Improve community resilience against health threats to the members of the Gawad Kalinga Community in Barangay Ticad, Bantayan Island, Cebu Objectives Success Indicators (SI)
1.1 By the end of the 1st visit, the Gawad Kalinga Community in Barangay Ticad, Bantayan, and AMSA-SOMA will have established lasting means of communication
SI: continued communication between Gawad Kalinga Community officers and AMSA-SOMA officers with proper endorsement of change in officers
1.2 By the end of the 2nd Visit, a database of the target community will have been established and at least 80% of the households in the target community will have contributed to problem
SI: # of households plotted and interviewed
identification through a survey conducted by AMSA-SOMA members
1.3 By the 3rd visit, all of the community officers and at least 60% of the households will have participated in the evaluation of survey results, prioritization of identified problems, and generation of an action plan
SI: # of households represented in attendance during evaluation of survey results, prioritization of identified problems, and generation of an action plan
1.4 By the end of 2017 at least 80% of the members of the target community will have attended trainings/workshops to aid/address their action plans
SI: # of households represented in attendance during trainings and workshops designed to aid/address action plans
1.5 By the end of 2018 at least 60% of the community members will report moderate to high level confidence in taking action on identified community problems through a survey conducted by AMSA-SOMA members
SI: # of community members with survey results showing moderate to high level confidence in taking action on identified community problems
1.6 By the end of 2017 the target community will have expanded their support linkages to both government and nongovernment agencies
SI: # of new support linkages established GOAL 2: Develop among the members of AMSA-SOMA the capability and the passion for community service Objectives By the end of each immersion all AMSA-SOMA volunteers will: Success Indicators
2.1 report in their journal an appreciation for the way of living in the target community
SI: # of volunteers expressing appreciation of community living through their journal
2.2 relay through their journals an understanding of the community’s health needs
SI: # of community health needs identified and explained
2.3 demonstrate skills in group organization and facilitation
SI: # of community groups organized by AMSA-SOMA volunteers
SI: # of tasks accomplished by organized groups
2.4 express interest in joining future community programs
SI: # of AMSA-SOMA volunteers expressing interest in joining future activities

Methodology:

To make this project a success, AMSA-SOMA did the following:
 Meeting, Goal-setting, Planning and Orientation with Family Medicine and AMSA SOMA Adviser, Dr. Annely Jane Celocia
 Establishment of linkages with possible partner organizations (such as Philippine Red Cross – Cebu Chapter, Gawad Kalinga, etc.)
 Meeting with Gawad Kalinga point person and volunteers
 Making arrangements with the Gawad Kalinga community
 Courtesy call at all local government units
 AMSA-SOMA Volunteers’ Orientation and Training
 Project promotion through school bulletin, room-to-room invitations and social media

Plans for evaluation:

Evaluation of the project will be done after the intervention phase. This will be done through questionnaire survey, focused group discussions, in-depth interviews, and evaluation meetings. An initial survey was done prior to intervention and another one will be done after the interventions, whose results will be compared to each other. Focused group discussions will gather similar people into groups to discuss if their concerns were met while in-depth interviews will be done to people in the community with key involvement in the project. Evaluation meetings are for the organizers of the project.