IMPACT
Medical Trips & Chronic Care
Since 2004, Philos Health has returned to the Philippines multiple times per year, allowing us to follow up with patients and provide ongoing care. To support the year-round management of chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, we employ a local nurse who monitors patients, provides education, and works with their doctors to ensure proper medication management.
Surgery Program
In 2010, Philos Health partnered with the District Hospital in Jagna to conduct its first surgical mission, offering gynecological and general surgeries to patients in need. Since then, our volunteer surgeons, working alongside local operating room nurses and anesthesiologists, have performed more than 400 successful, life-saving procedures — all free of charge.
Supplemental Nutrition Feeding Program
With the support of the Municipal Government of Jagna, Philos Health launched the Manna Pack Supplemental Nutrition Feeding Program in 2010. Every year since (except during the pandemic), we have delivered rice soy–based meals fortified with essential vitamins and minerals to every barangay in Jagna. Parents prepare and serve more than 3,100 hot, nutritious meals daily to children in group settings.
At the onset of the program, a survey of 1,100 children revealed that 30% were moderately to severely malnourished, based on World Health Organization (WHO) standards. By 2017, a follow-up survey showed that number had dropped to less than 5%.
Philos Health has since expanded the program to include seniors and pregnant women. Since its inception, the program has provided more than 3.5 million meals, with the ultimate goal of eliminating malnutrition in Jagna.
The Molineaux
Children’s Dental Clinic
In June 2015, Philos Health, in partnership with the Bohol Department of Education, I CHECK (a local NGO), and Susan and Christopher Molineaux, established the first school-based free dental clinic in the Philippines. The Department of Education provided space for a full-service facility, now known as the Molineaux Children’s Dental Clinic.
Before the clinic opened, an assessment of preschool children found that 97% had cavities, with an average of more than six caries per child. Since then, over 8,500 students have received care, including cleanings, fillings, sealants, fluoride treatments, extractions, x-rays, and oral exams. To promote prevention, Philos Health also supplies toothbrushes and toothpaste for both at-home use and supervised daily brushing in classrooms — ensuring that every child is cavity-free by the time they complete 6th grade.
The clinic operates year-round with one full-time dentist and one dental assistant. Volunteer dentists from both the Philippines and the United States also join to expand services and provide additional care as they are available. Since its opening, the clinic has provided local children with more than 37,500 treatments — valued at $4.5 million if administered in the San Francisco Bay Area — free of charge.
The Boctol Rotary
Children’s Dental Clinic
Rotary Club of Central Jagna, a new children’s dental clinic was established at Boctol Elementary School in Jagna. The new clinic provides a full range of dental treatments to the 450 kids at the elementary school and nearby schools. In the first two years of operation, 2700 children received treatments.
The Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club (MSBR) is the international sponsor for a Rotary global grant. In 2020, Rotary International awarded a second grant to enable the Clinic to focus on treating pregnant women and their babies. The Clinic found that by the time children started kindergarten many already had a mouthful of cavities along with infections, abscesses, and missing teeth. A focus of the new grant is to prevent cavities among 5-year-olds by starting education and treatment at an earlier age.
Supporting the Clinic also are Rotary Clubs from San Bruno, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, Irvine, Burlingame,
and Rotary Club of Central Jagna.
“Our financial support to start the new dental clinic in an elementary school in Boctol allows us to invest in a better future for the community. Our continuation of support provides even more help to those who need it the most. We are delighted to work with Philos on this important project”.
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~ Jill D. Fabricant, Ph.D., Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club International Program Chair
