Goducate’s goal to go and educate all 42,000 barangays (villages) in the Philippines. One of the new barangays reached is Manguna in the municipality of Cabatuan, in Iloilo province. Goducate reached this community with our Health Information Drive (HID) for senior citizens.
First, Goducate community development trainers (CDTs) trained 7 barangay health workers how to conduct a HID. Then on June 29, barangay health workers, together with Goducate CDTs, shared what they had learnt to 132 senior citizens in Manguna. The elderly were taught, for free, about the risks, causes, symptoms, and treatment of diabetes and hypertension — the country’s top killer diseases. They were also taught the benefits of Moringa loifera (malunggay) and how to make malunggay powder.
Since then, the Goducate CDTs, with the barangay health workers, have been going house-to-house to do weekly follow-up visits and measuring blood pressures in Manguna’s seven zones.
Barangay Manguna is the biggest village in the municipality of Cabatuan, with a population of over 2000 residents in 500 households. It will be under the care of Goducate Iloilo’s 10th batch of CDTs from July to September. This plan is in keeping with Goducate’s aim to train trainers who can raise up leaders in the community, so that the communities can be self-sustaining.
*Our guest writer is Queenie Guibao, batch 10 trainee.