Four isolated provinces in Mindanao surveyed by PRIMEX assessment team for DOH project

 

Team Leader Henry Briones confers with UP CPH Statistician Kim Lim Cochon while Project Coordinator Joy Ferriols-Pavico tackles admin matters with Basilan Field Supervisor Harold Hidalgo

Team Leader Henry Briones confers with UP CPH Statistician Kim Lim Cochon while Project Coordinator Joy Ferriols-Pavico tackles admin matters with Basilan Field Supervisor Harold Hidalgo

Helen Keller, International  engaged PRIMEX to evaluate and assess two strategies used by the Department of Health (DOH) to improve health service delivery in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Mr. Henry Briones, Team Leader and Public Health Evaluation Specialist, headed the field survey for the Reaching Every Barangay (REB) and Midwife for Every Community in ARMM (MECA) strategies in four provinces and one chartered city. The team surveyed about a thousand households in the most isolated and disadvantaged areas of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Marawi City, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi from December 2012 to January 2013.

Using the REB strategy, DOH provided regular integrated family planning and maternal and child health service delivery to clients which was accessed by community members in remote barangays in the covered provinces. DOH deployed midwives to serve in ARMM using the MECA strategy in the last two years.

The Assessment Team engaged four groups of respondents which included: households, Community Health Action Team; village leaders and health managers at the municipal and provincial levels; and MECA-midwives. They covered 21 municipalities, 85 barangays and 987 families represented by women 18 to 34 years old.

The members of the evaluation team included Ms. Kim Cochon, Programmer/Encoder, Ms. Limpa Pandi-Unda, Field Supervisor for Lanao del Sur and Marawi City, Mr. Harold Noel Hidalgo, Field Supervisor for Basilan, and Dr. Charina Izquierdo-Isahac, Field Supervisor for Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.  Each provincial team is composed of a Field Supervisor and eight Enumerators/Interviewers.