By Amina Evangelista Swanepoel | Project Leader
Thank you for being part of our mission to ensure that every person, no matter where they live or who they are, has access to accurate, empowering information about their health and rights. With your support, we’ve continued to reach underserved communities, train future healthcare providers, and create innovative tools to fight stigma and spread awareness. Here are a few highlights from the past few months that show the impact you’re making possible.
More Than a Pad: Empowering Girls with Knowledge
Bigger school, even bigger impact! In February, our second PAD-ibig Diaries event landed at Rizal High School in Pasig City—the biggest high school in Metro Manila! After last year’s launch at Palawan’s largest school, we’re thrilled to have brought this fun, empowering initiative to even more girls. We handed out menstrual pads in beautifully illustrated packaging, each one wrapped with diary-style messages on puberty, relationships, consent, and contraception.
Reaching the Unreached: SRHR for Indigenous Women
From February to May, our team focused on outreach for Indigenous (IP) women. In some of the most remote areas of Palawan, our team traveled for hours—by car, on foot, crossing rivers, and climbing mountains—to bring vital sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) information to indigenous women. These are communities often left behind, but their right to know and care for their bodies matters just as much. In places like the one pictured, our team set up makeshift shelters by the water and held sessions wherever women gathered—sharing life-changing knowledge on consent, contraception, maternal care, and more.
Training Future Nurses to Fight HIV Stigma
As the HIV crisis in the Philippines continues to worsen, we’re stepping up our efforts—starting with the next generation of healthcare providers. We’ve launched a new module for nursing students focused on compassionate, rights-based care for people with HIV (PWH). Many PWH still face stigma and discrimination, not only from their communities but also within the very health systems meant to support them. By educating nursing students early on, we’re helping ensure they enter the field ready to uphold human rights, provide quality care, and become powerful allies in the fight against HIV-related stigma. Check out the link below to see highlights from one of our training sessions.
Your continued support means everything to us, and to the thousands of young people, women, and families we reach across Palawan and beyond. Thank you for standing with us in the fight for health equity, dignity, and rights for all. We’re so grateful to have you on this journey.
In solidarity,
The Roots of Health Team
Links:
By Amina Evangelista Swanepoel | Project Leader
By Amina Evangelista Swanepoel | Project Leader
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