SUCCESS STORIES
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• Making Time for Health
• Providing Safer Options for Women
• Empowering Workers as Health Educators
• Family Planning and Islam

Making Time for Health

Taking time off for health is no easy decision for daily wage earners like Angelie Nalupa. When Angelie was pregnant with her first baby, pre-natal check-ups meant waiting in line for hours at the Bohol provincial general hospital. It also meant one whole day of missed work with no pay. Earning less than US$6 a day, Angelie and others like her struggle to meet their families' basic needs.

With help from USAID, the Alturas Group of Companies (Alturas) and the Best Quality (BQ) Mall in Bohol made family health information and services more accessible to Angelie and 8,300 other workers. Alturas and BQ mall trained their company health providers and selected employees on how to implement and monitor a family health program tailored to their employees’ needs. They also trained volunteer employees as peer educators who became the source of information on family health and on where to go for additional information or services. Pre-employment orientations, general assemblies, and team-building activities served as venues to promote family health to workers.

Further progress was achieved when Alturas and BQ Mall linked-up with an association of midwives which is also supported by USAID. A symbiotic relationship soon ensued. The midwives gave free seminars, family planning counseling, and pre-natal check-ups inside the company premises, all on company time. In turn, workers bought family planning commodities and accessed family planning and maternal and child health services from the midwives. Around 2,900 workers adopted modern family planning methods. About 290 pregnant workers completed the recommended four antenatal check-ups that helped detect and address possible pregnancy complications.

Indeed, time for health is no longer synonymous with time off from work for Angelie and her fellow daily-wage earners. "This is something that could really be sustained. Companies need healthy workers, while midwives need clients," offered Evangaline Baytong, one of several midwives serving the needs of Alturas and BQ Mall.

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