This project is to raise the final funding needed to print and distribute 5,000 copies of Hesperian's "Where Women Have No Doctor" in Cebuano to health workers in remote areas of Negros Oriental. Using this book, health workers can provide treatment/prevention methods as well as general health information to women in their communities. The translation was done by Silliman University Marina Mission Clinic (SUMMC), a community health clinic serving the rural population of Negros Oriental.
The rural areas of the Philippines are mountainous and very remote. People in these communities cannot pay for care from Western-trained doctors. Common illnesses in the rural areas are pneumonia, TB, Malnutrition, Diarrhea, Typhoid, and now liver cirrhosis, lung cancer, hypertension, breast cancer, diabetes because of lifestyle changes. Cases of STDs and HIV/AIDS are increasing in urban areas as well. Basic needs are not met yet in the rural communities, so these poverty-linked diseases recur.
Village health workers such as FVHMs and educated women in rural communities will have access to the Hesperian's "Where Women Have No Doctor" in Cebuano, their native language. Using this up-to-date health manual, they can provide treatment and prevention methods as well as general health information to women in their community. An objective of SUMMC is to restore human dignity to rural women by educating and organizing them which this book will do.
1) Improve the overall health of women in rural communities. 2) Increase rural women's self-esteem by empowering them with practical medical knowledge.
