Dear Supporters,
We’re delighted to share with you how we’ve been busy the past few months. Here’s how your support helped touch the lives of women and young people in Palawan:
Seven young leaders joined our roster of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) Youth Advocates (YAs). After graduating from a series of training sessions with our Youth Team, our new and old YAs teamed up to lead an outreach in the Puerto Princesa City Baywalk Park that many young people frequent.
We’re proud of our YAs for using their new knowledge and skills to reach out to their peers about our free services and encourage them to care for their SRH and mental well-being. They play an integral role in connecting us with young people to help them know their bodies and their rights, and access the SRH services they need.
Comprehensive sex ed for community youth
Our Youth Council partners brought together a hundred eager teens who joined our community-based comprehensive sex ed session in Roxas town in Palawan. The attendees were children of beneficiaries of the Philippine government’s conditional cash transfer program for the most vulnerable and marginalized.
We believe that providing young people with correct and adequate information about their sexual and reproductive health will help them make better decisions that can open up opportunities to live healthy productive lives.
Needs based intervention in El Nido, Palawan
In May, we met with local officials of El Nido to talk about the town’s current health situation and present data on teen pregnancies, contraceptive acceptors, and HIV cases in the municipality.
These discussions fueled our collective assessment of what further interventions are needed and how we can come together to deliver these.
We’re happy to report that we recently ticked off the first item in our shared agenda! Twenty-seven (27) village health workers enthusiastically participated in a training session on youth-friendly service delivery. We also took this time to strategize the best ways to encourage young people in the community to access SRH services from the local health center.
We value working closely with local government units as it allows us to extend SRH care to areas far from the city where our clinics are located.
Recognition from the City Youth Development Office (CYDO)
We’re honored to receive an award recognizing our efforts in supporting Puerto Princesa City’s programs related to Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH).
Congratulations also to the graduates of the CYDO’s Apuradong Kabataan ng Puerto Princesa program where aspiring young leaders are trained for future leadership roles. We’re thrilled that our contributions to their peer educator training for this program has helped in their advocacies.
The awards ceremony was a great opportunity for us to catch up with our Youth Council partners and meet other potential partners such as student-led governments and youth-centered organizations.
It’s truly a cup-filling moment when like-minded people and groups are given an opportunity to celebrate wins, share challenges, and articulate dreams for our causes!
With your steady support and our continuous collaboration with our local partners, we can make SRH within reach of women, young people, and vulnerable communities.
Thank you for being with us every step of the way!
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Dear Supporters,
We have started off 2023 with a bang, thanks to your continued support! Here’s how you touched the lives of people in Palawan – especially the most marginalized – since January:
HIV counseling and screening at the Puerto Princesa City Jail
We commemorated AIDS awareness month last December by conducting voluntary HIV counseling and screening at the Puerto Princesa City Jail, as we’ve done in previous years. Three hundred fifty-three (353) persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) and jail personnel had the opportunity to find out their HIV status and learned more about this condition and how to prevent transmission.
Thank you to the City Jail, City Health Office, and our local non-profit partners for fighting HIV and AIDS with us by providing accessible testing and support especially to vulnerable groups.
Implant insertion for Tagbanua women
We’re fortunate to have reached more and more indigenous communities toward the end of last year with free high quality and non-judgmental sexual and reproductive health services! After several clinical missions in a Badjao community at the periphery of Puerto Princesa City, our clinical team conducted another mission in a Tagbanua community south of the city. Like the Badjao, the Tagbanua are one of the oldest ethnic groups in the country.
During our visit, Tagbanua women learned about the different family planning methods that they could avail of. Contraceptive implants were administered to those who chose to have up to three years of protection against unplanned pregnancies.
Senate Hearing on the Prevention of Teen Pregnancy Bill
Our Executive Director Amina Evangelista-Swanepoel shared our insights and recommendations at a Senate committee hearing on bills seeking to decrease adolescent pregnancies in the Philippines.
Our experience working for 14 years to reduce teen pregnancies in Palawan prompted us to provide recommendations on:
Sustaining partnerships with local youth councils
Our Youth Team recently met with the local youth council of Aborlan, Palawan to check-in with them regarding their plans and activities for this year. We also gave out free condoms which they are now distributing in their respective communities.
Working with young leaders through partnerships like these enable more youth to make informed decisions for their futures and decrease the number of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
We are proud of these hard working youth council members for their active role in linking teens to SRH services and education that we at ROH and their local government units provide.
Support group session for young persons deprived of liberty
We’ve been extending mental health services to young people as our studies have shown that those with poor mental well-being are more likely to enter early into sexual relationships that can lead to unplanned pregnancies.
In February, we partnered with the Puerto Princesa City Jail for a series of wellness activities with six young persons deprived of liberty (PDLs). They shared with us the struggles of being a young PDL, and while it was challenging for most to open up at first, they expressed feeling less burdened because now they understand themselves better and want to seek each other’s support.
We’re thankful to these young women for sharing their stories and experiences. We hope that when they are reintegrated into society, they and the next batches we will engage with, will take with them helpful practices to maintain good mental health and lead healthier lives with their families.
Capacitating Young Leaders
In February, seven young leaders graduated from our intensive training on how to be peer advocates for sexual and reproductive health.
Our training, done in four weekends, equipped our new YAs with the knowledge and skills that they need to be effective and compassionate advocates among fellow youth in their communities. They discussed sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in-depth, as well as topics on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex characteristics (SOGIESC). The new YAs also learned more about Roots of Health’s vision and how our aspirations align. The YAs were also trained on effective communications and they got to immediately apply what they learned by talking to young people in Balayong Park about SRHR.
We’re so excited to be working with these awesome young people in linking more teens to the free SRHR services and education that we at Roots of Health provide.
Basic Sex Ed for Young People
We celebrated Valentine’s Day with students from the Palawan State University by spreading awareness on health and wellness topics that impact their lives and futures.
Joined by 876 students, our Youth Team busted sex and pregnancy myths, explained modern contraceptive methods, tackled mental health issues, and discussed HIV/AIDS and the ways young people can protect themselves and their community. It was a jam-packed session of learning!
Young Government Leaders
We’re amazed at how our Youth Council partners continue to help us bring sexual and reproductive health information to more young people in communities!
In March, our Youth Council partners brought together a hundred eager teens who joined our community-based comprehensive sex ed session in Roxas town in Palawan. The attendees were children of beneficiaries of the Philippine government’s conditional cash transfer program for the most vulnerable and marginalized.
The youth learned more about their bodies, puberty, sexuality, sex, pregnancy, and how to prevent unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. They also deepened their understanding of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). Our team also discussed with them myths on menstruation, circumcision, and sex, and encouraged them to be critical of information they get from peers and online by checking with credible sources.
We at Roots of Health believe that providing young people with correct and adequate information about their sexual and reproductive health will help them make better decisions that can open up opportunities to live healthy productive lives.
Thank you for your continued support!
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Dear Partner,
We’re happy to share with you how your support has impacted thousands of families in Palawan and the rest of the Philippines!
Here are some highlights of what we did in the last quarter of 2022:
Supporting girls’ rights to a bright future
Girls are at the center of what we do at Roots of Health. As we celebrated International Day of the Girl in October, we were also filled with wonder about how your support has continuously impacted the lives of girls in Palawan and the rest of the Philippines. Here are some stories of fruitful and inspiring collaborations.
Future police officers deepen understanding on sexual and reproductive health
We had an engaging session with 120 criminology students from Western Philippines University on a variety of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) topics last month! The students learned more about maternal mortality, teen pregnancy, and HIV in Palawan.
Myths on fertility and contraception were also busted. Many students revealed that although they know about modern contraceptives, they are not actually sure how to use these. This shows that all young people, even future heroes, need more credible, comprehensive, and relatable information on SRH that they can apply in their daily lives.
We at Roots of Health welcome partnerships with educational institutions so we can explore with young people the ways in which they can lead healthier, happier lives.
Building a social support network to improve the mental well-being of young girls
Our team recently held a psychotherapy session at Bahay Pag-asa Youth Rehabilitation Center (BPYRC). Our youth counselor facilitated a talk therapy session with girls from BPYRC to help unpack traumatic experiences they had faced and their coping mechanisms.
We recognize that a girl’s poor mental health can increase her risk of entering more quickly into a sexual relationship, which increases her teen pregnancy risk. As a countermeasure, we provide girls with the support they need for their mental well-being. Through talk therapy sessions, peer group support, and couples communication workshops, we can help young people understand and practice consent, safer sex, and healthy relationships.
Busting sex myths with high school students
We had an awesome learning session with these energetic students from Luzviminda National High School (LNHS) last month! We tackled reproductive health topics, corrected sex myths, and talked about HIV.
We’re always happy to be invited to talk to young people and give them the right information about their bodies and their health so they can make better decisions for themselves and prevent unwanted teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
As 2022 comes to a close, we’d like to take this moment to thank you for your continued support this year and the next. We wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season!
Best regards from Roots of Health
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Dear Supporter,
Here’s how how your support has impacted thousands of families in Palawan:
Agutaya Mission
One island at a time, the Roots of Health team continues to reach more women with their contraceptive of choice.
Our team conducted a mission in Agutaya, a remote island community in eastern Palawan. Here, we had the pleasure of hearing from several women about their experiences with FP and accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in their island. Read their stories at http://bit.ly/agutaya-2022
Back to face-to-face classes
Schools in the Philippines have recently reopened after almost three years of virtual and blended learning. Our team was invited to hold a session on reproductive health and HIV with more than 300 high school students in Puerto Princesa City.
This was the first major face-to-face gathering that we conducted since the pandemic began! We are so excited to be back doing what inspires us the most – sharing crucial, credible, non-judgmental information on sexual and reproductive health with young people.
Contraceptive Missions
Since our last update, our Clinical Team traveled across Palawan to provide women with their contraceptives of choice. Over a thousand women and girls gathered in their community centers to learn more about the different contraceptives available, and we’re delighted that 1,245 of them chose long-acting contraceptives like implants. Nearly 100 women chose to use pills and condoms. Now more women in Palawan can worry less about unplanned pregnancies and lead healthier reproductive lives.
I Choose Website Launch
Young people need a safe space to navigate the changes that they go through during puberty. Most feel awkward talking to parents and even friends. Information is available online, but many sites are not credible. When they are, they are written in English in technical language not easily relatable to Filipino youth. To address these challenges, we’ve been working with USAID and ReachHealth to launch I Choose, a Tagalog-language website where young Filipinos can access localized and comprehensive information on sexual health, mental health, relationships, growing up, and SOGIESC. We love the dynamic and fun approach the site takes in providing young people with sexual health information. Check out the I Choose website at https://malayaako.ph/ and share it with your friends!
ROH turns thirteen
We’re officially a teenager now!
Thanks to your generosity, we continue our mission of decreasing unplanned pregnancies, maternal deaths, and HIV incidence. Through the years, we’ve helped more than 50,000 women access FP services. Over 3,700 women have received prenatal care. More than 2,700 people have been screened for HIV. We’ve reached more than 96,000 young people with comprehensive sexuality education. With your steadfast support, we hope to reach even more Filipinos with vital SRH information and services in the years to come.
Together, let’s keep advocating for Filipinos’ right to health and help them access the information and services they need to build brighter futures.
Thank you very much for all your support!
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Dear Supporter,
March was Women’s Month, but the work we put in to #BreakTheBias for a gender equal world doesn’t end there. Here’s a quick recap of what we accomplished in March and April thanks to your support.
Chatbot Launch
We’re excited to announce that the website chatbot for ugatngkalusugan.org is now officially up and running! The chatbot can be accessed through the website and the Ugat ng Kalusugan RH Clinic Facebook page. Through this Tagalog-language chatbot, Filipinos can easily ask questions or schedule an appointment at our clinic to get free, confidential, and non-judgmental sexual and reproductive health services.
Gender Snapshot
We’ve seen how the onslaught of Typhoon Rai has disrupted the lives of Palaweños. Its impact, however, was not felt equally across genders and among vulnerable populations. That’s why–-together with A Single Drop for Safe Water and Oxfam Philippines– we’re looking into the gendered impact of the typhoon on communities and vulnerable groups in Palawan.
So far we’ve collected data from 211 participants and conducted in-depth interviews with key people in Puerto Princesa City. We look forward to sharing the results of our research soon so we can help institute more gender-responsive solutions to disaster preparedness and response of local communities.
Elevate AIDA
Through our partnership with Connected Women and the support of the Philippine Business for Social Progress, 25 Palaweñas are now a step closer to remote employment opportunities. This is thanks to a 15-day training program on artificial intelligence and basic remote working skills called Elevate AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Data Annotation).
It is now increasingly important to develop new skills to adapt to changes brought about by the pandemic, especially as traditional work arrangements have been shifting to online and remote setups. Now, more women have a chance at better work opportunities despite the economic crisis caused by the pandemic as well as the recent Typhoon Rai.
Youth Outreach Programs
Although quarantine restrictions have eased with some schools gradually moving towards face-to-face classes, not all students are back in the classroom yet. To continue providing comprehensive sexuality education to young Filipinos, our Youth Team conducted several outreach activities in Puerto Princesa last month. The team engaged over 80 high school students and children of solo parents on reproductive health topics to help curb cases of teen pregnancies and HIV infections among the youth.
Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Typhoon Rai, ROH continues to support women, young people, and Filipino families in accessing much needed health information and services.
Thank you very much for your continued support!
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