Collaborative approaches using traditional and nontraditional providers of women's health care in the Philippines

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Abstract
Unequal distribution of professional health personnel and scarce resources plague third world countries. The means by which this two‐pronged problem is tackled vary from country to country. The Philippines, however, should not suffer from this same problem because there are more than enough health professionals graduating every year. Government priorities however, preclude the opening of more jobs for the rural areas, leading to the out‐migration and depletion in the hinterlands. In order to remedy this imperfection, lay women are trained to help solve some of the major problems in health. Full‐time outreach workers, barrio supply point officers, and school teachers are recruited to decrease high fertility and population growth. Nutrition scholars work on the problem of rampant malnutrition especially among children and pregnant and lactating women, while general morbidity is tackled by volunteer health workers. Pharmacy aides dispense the most essential drugs. All these are lay women, but the academe take it upon themselves to innovate teaching strategies to train these volunteers at minimal cost. Some progress has been achieved. What has been planned as stopgap measures may yet prove to be solutions in the long run. Filipino women are demonstrating that they themselves can solve the problems that beset them and their families.

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