Honorable Undersecretary Gerardo Bayugo
Department of Health
Honorable Governor Elias C. Bulut, Jr.
Province of Apayao
Honorable Mayor Betty C. Verzola
Municipality of Luna, Apayao
Honorable Valeriano Lopez
Regional Director, Center for Health Development – Cordillera
Administrative Region (CHD-CAR)
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen:
Good morning to you all.
On behalf of the Government of Japan, it is my pleasure and honor to join you all in today's official Handover of Equipment to the Luna Rural Health Units and hospitals in Apayao Province.
Japan, as the top donor of Official Development Assistance to the Philippines , has supported a wide range of projects and activities that protect and promote the health and welfare of women and children in the Philippines for the past f ive decades. Our projects were geared towards providing diverse range of health-care services such as reproductive health programs for women, capacity building for rural health workers , as well as conducting nationwide measles and polio control campaigns for children, among others.
In the Cordillera Administrative Region, starting in 2006, Japan has provided a five - year technical assistance project to strengthen the local health system in Benguet Province as well as a four-year project on maternal and child health (MCH) in the province of Ifugao.
Abra and Apayao provinces are two of the most impoverished provinces in the Philippines due to their mountainous geographic features that left most of its communities in isolation. As a result, most of the medical facilities in these areas lack the necessary equipment for the delivery of quality health care. Hence, effective and efficient delivery of MCH services through the strengthening of local health system is a priority task in the region towards reduction of maternal and infant mortality.
The protection of the general well-being of women and children continues to be a major global concern, which spans across borders worldwide. I n 1950, Japan experienced a high infant mortality rate of 60.1 per 1,000 births, but this subsequently underwent a dramatic decrease, and by 20 1 0 recording the rate of 2 . 3 per 1,000 births , it was the lowest in the world. Presently, the high infant mortality rate is still greater than 50 per 1,000 births in more than 60 developing countries. There is a powerful desire on the part of developing countries to learn from the Japanese experience in maternal and child health, which brought about such a rapid improvement in the health standards after the end of the World War II .
After the war , the system of registration of pregnancies and health checks was strongly recommended, and various types of maternal and child health services were established. The program of health guidance for pregnant women and mothers with small children was intensified, based on the public health centers. Health education programs run by public health nurses and midwives, mainly conducted through home visits, played a major role in promoting infant health. The “Pregnant Mother's Handbook” system, launched during the war , was revised after the war and “ the Mother and Child Handbook ” was relaunched .
Based upon its own experience, Japan believes that mothers and infants, as vulnerable members of the society , deserve adequate, accessible and appropriate health care services particularly in disadvantaged communities in Apayao.
This project epitomizes Japan's support towards enhancing health care delivery systems through participatory approach, thus creating a synergistic effect to reducing and preventing maternal deaths and child mortality. I would like to highlight that an important component of this project is the Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care training for doctors and midwives in this region. We believe that these trainings will promote cooperation between the health institutions in this province. I trust that the equipment we are turning over today such as the delivery tables, Fetal Doppler and weighing scales for infants, disinfecting kit for medical tools, among others , will help these trained health workers to deliver extensive and efficient maternal and newborn health services effectively.
In these endeavor of ours to give mothers and infants the proper protection and care they need, I would like to emphasize that the cooperation and active involvement of the D O H Center for Health Development a nd the local health officials , as well as the barangay leaders and health volunteers , are crucial to the successful implementation of this project.
I sincerely hope this project will achieve its intended purposes to protect the health and well-being of mothers and newborns, which will redound to improved health of the entire families and eventually bring about a safer environment for the future generations in Apayao province. The task at hand is not easy , but with the unwavering cooperation between our two countries and people s , “Yes, we can !” Let us carry on.
Thank you very much and Cheers to you all!
