Pfizer helps train GK healthcare volunteers

They may not have the formal degree that healthcare professionals trained in medical schools have, but their role in the community is just as important, indispensable, and daunting.

They are the healthcare volunteers in a large Gawad Kalinga community in San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan, which hosts over 600 homes or more than 3,000 people.

This GK community is no different from the actual healthcare situation in the country, where millions of Filipinos have limited access to doctors and healthcare professionals.

Thanks to the healthcare volunteers trained under the Gawad Kalusugan-Pfizer (GKal) program, residents of this GK community have now a better chance of being educated about how to take care of themselves. This is because the GKal program empowers GK communities to manage and respond to their own health needs.

A joint project of Gawad Kalinga and Pfizer Foundation, GKal trains community volunteers in primary healthcare and disease prevention, and provides an organizational platform for the competencies they need.

Among GKal’s products is Edna Amores, 39, of GK Texas, who has trained for 17 weeks and is still undergoing training under national program coordinator Dr. Eric Cayabyab.

Yet, Amores is already in the thick of her tasks as a healthcare volunteer, attending to the sick and administering first aid.

 “As healthcare volunteers, we didn’t even realize that people would always run to us for their health problems — from fever to stomach ache and hypertension. We measure blood pressure, and provide first aid which is where we can help a lot. But we don’t expect them to return the favor. All we want is to help because that is what we see from our benefactors (GK and Pfizer Foundation),” Amores says.

Another volunteer, Estefania Sanchez, 51, of GK Thomasian Village, has a similar experience and is enjoying it.

“We have had PhilHealth and an anti-tuberculosis program, whose 43 patients are now all healthy. Now we have a feeding program for some 20 children. We have also undergone reflexology and dental training, and these days we are being trained in applying first aid,” Sanchez says.

She recalls how she used to be ignored in the community. “But now, people seem to look up to me for my role in the neighborhood,” she says.

“But in the training, we all get treated as equals, regardless whether one is rich or poor. What matter are the knowledge and skills we acquire,” she adds.

“People really come to you when they know that you are a Gkal healthcare volunteer, but you have to be certain in everything you do. As Dr. Cayabyab says, we need to be sure and sincere in performing our tasks because we deal with people’s lives. And once you’ve become a healthcare volunteer, you’ve assumed that role for the rest of your life,” says Maritess Canes, 37, of GK Japan Village 1.

In Canes’ community, there is only one healthcare volunteer for every 170 families. “And there are only five of us there in our big neighborhood. So we try to encourage others to join us and undergo similar training,” she says.

The same is being done by Zoila Manalo, 52, of GK Texas, who belongs to the first batch of GKal-Pfizer trainees.

“I tell (my neighbors) to join the training because it’s very important to learn a lot in this field. I particularly encourage those with many small children, so that their parents will know how to properly care for them and the rest of the family,” Manalo says.

According to the volunteers, the GKal-Pfizer program is about not just promoting a healthy self-reliant community, but also improving the lives of its people by giving them a strong sense of purpose.