Philippines

While regular activities have been put on hold in Manila and Marawi, MSF is conducting community education sessions on COVID-19 in both locations.

In San Lazaro hospital in Manila, MSF staff are providing support to the COVID-19 treatment ward and the hospital laboratory. The team saw a steady increase of COVID-19 patients in the first half of July, and has been supporting the ward through human resources, donations of personal protective equipment, biomedical equipment, and medication. We continue to support our partner organisation Likhaan through health promotion work in the slum areas of Manila. In June we began supporting health teams in charge of contact tracing and COVID-19 prevention activities within the local community. We are also providing infection prevention and control support in three health facilities caring for COVID-19 patients.

In Marawi, we are continuing our mobile information drive to pass COVID-19 health promotion messages to vulnerable populations. Following the end of the community quarantine, our teams are back working in the three clinics which were previously closed by the City Health Office during lockdown. We have launched a project to support the local medical teams responsible for contact tracing, and have expanded community information sessions around COVID-19 within two newly-created community quarantine facilities.

Much of the Philippines is mountainous and prone to natural disasters. It is often lashed by typhoons and other storms. MSF has responded to several natural disasters in the Philippines, including Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 and Typhoon Tembin in 2017.  

Médecins Sans Frontières first worked in the Philippines in 1987.

Sexual and Reproductive Health

Following a 2015 assessment, MSF confirmed the need for sexual and reproductive health services in the densely populated and impoverished districts of the country’s capital, Manila. In collaboration with a local organisation, Likhaan, MSF staff offer sexual and reproductive health services at two clinics based in the Tondo and San Andres slum communities.MSF offers family planning services and care for victims of sexual violence, human papilloma virus vaccines, as well as screening and treatment for cervical cancer.

Following the siege of Marawi, MSF offered psychological first aid and ran water, sanitation and hygiene activities for people displaced by the conflict between the Philippine armed forces and two pro-Islamic State factions, the Maute group and Abu Sayyaf, in Marawi city, Mindanao region. MSF has remained in the area to support internally displaced people and returnees.