UP Manila, lawmakers offer health training, aid to 25 scholars from Homonhon

The University of the Philippines Manila and two lawmakers have entered a partnership to provide a health-related special class for 25 individuals from Homonhon Island in Eastern Samar.

The partnership aims to build a “sustainable, community-rooted health workforce for Homonhon Island.”

Scholars will be subsequently trained to qualify as midwives, nurses, and eventually doctors, within one integrated educational track.

It is a pioneering curriculum of UP Manila’s School of Health Sciences, based in Palo, Leyte.

The 25 scholars will be chosen from Homonhon’s eight barangays.

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader and 4Ps Party-list Representative Marcelino Libanan and Eastern Samar Representative Christopher Sheen Gonzales will provide students with allowances.

“This will revolutionize public health services in Homonhon with community-rooted professionals who will stay and serve their people. The island will finally be assured of sustainable, community-based health care,” Libanan said in a statement on Sunday.

“Right now, patients—even in emergency cases—must endure a two-and-a-half-hour motorized boat ride to Guiuan on the mainland. When the seas are rough, travel becomes impossible,” Gonzales said in the same statement.

With the implementation of the curriculum, graduates are expected to work at the island’s hospital and help pass down the skill within the community.

“Our goal is two-fold: to give our students practical training through community preceptorship while multiplying health services for remote areas. This is how we bring universal health care closer to the people,” UP Manila Chancellor Dr. Michael Tee said. — Mariel Celine Serquiña/BM, GMA Integrated News