[A mother holds her child at the registration booth for the free medical consultation held in Talongan Village.]
Text and photos by Stephen J Pedroza
The joint medical mission of Xavier University’s Health Services Office (HSO) and Red Cross Youth served the residents of Talongan Village, a relocation site in Sitio Calaanan on Sunday, October 18.
The event, dubbed as “Saving Lives: One Community at a Time,” provided free medical consultations, medicines, tooth extraction and health lectures, including a feeding program.
“From the medical consultations, the common illnesses of the residents here are common colds, respiratory sickness and hyperacidity,” said HSO director Dr Augusto Guitarte who led the team of medical and dental professionals during the event.
Health services
“We identified Talongan Village through the help of KKP-SIO [Kristohanong Katilingban sa Pagpakabana – Social Involvement Office] because this is their adopted community, so we decided to hold the medical mission here,” Guitarte added.
Talongan Village is a remote area in Sitio Calaanan, Barangay Canitoan with roughly 200 residents who were evacuees from the riverside communities of Cagayan de Oro City ravaged by Typhoon Sendong in December 2011. The quadruplex houses in the said village were built through the resettlement program of Habitat for Humanity Philippines.
More than 200 residents of Talongan and its neighboring villages availed of the medical consultations while the XU dentists performed tooth extraction to over a hundred people, mostly teenagers.
“Thank you sa pag-anhi sa Talongan maski layo kaayo para mag-medical mission,” shared Therese Ipanag, president of the Talongan Village Homeowners Association. (Thank you for coming to Talongan even though it’s far just to conduct this medical mission.)
“Timing ang event kay daghan gadaot kay tungod sa kalit-kalit nga init ug ulan.” (The mission is timely because a lot of the residents here are sick because of sudden changes in the weather.)
The preparations for the actual medical mission started at 5 in the morning as volunteers needed to prepare the food for the feeding program and to set up the tents, tables and chairs.
[Dr Joycee Borja, an XU dentist, performs tooth extraction to a teenager with the assistance of her dental aide Kristel Sabellano.]
Teamwork and leadership
The mission drew together 19 XU student volunteers who made sure everything was in place and in order, especially for the residents who came in the midst of the scorching heat.
Aside from manning the different booths, from registration to consultation and anaesthetic areas and pharmacy, a group of Red Cross Youth members discussed the importance of hand washing, tooth brushing and proper hygiene routine among the kids from the sitio.
For the Talongan youth and parents, the volunteers also tackled rabies prevention, HIV/AIDS, family planning programs and first aid, among other topics.
“Working with co-students was a challenge,” shared Swetzel Anne Neri, Red Cross Youth project leader for this medical mission. “All of us have our own schedules and we come from different colleges.”
“Lisod itipok (It was hard to get together),” she said. “But in the end, the will to pursue the project drove us to find the time.”
“Communication was our best asset. No matter how big the dilemma was during the preparation, it was handled gracefully because of our mutual understanding and teamwork,” imparted Neri, a junior biology student at XU.
“We were a team; we were all leaders in the project. Maybe I was the one who did the paperwork but everyone had their own share of work to do. It was a blessing to be able to work with great minds.”
XU-HSO and Red Cross Youth thank J&A Construction and Supply, Club XS and Cagayan RSO Hardware Inc for making the medical mission possible.
The two organizations plan to conduct a medical mission as their major project annually for different communities in the city in great need of medical attention.
[Using a stethoscope, one of the volunteer doctors, Dr Chona Carpio, an internist, examines the breathing pattern of a senior citizen during the XU medical mission in Talongan Village.]