Philippines
Country Profile/Quick Facts
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This Southeast Asian country is still coming to terms with its unstable political past, while at the same time its government faces a variety of conflicts throughout the 7,000 islands, which make up the nation. A separatist conflict has been an off-and-on affair since 1973. Crimes, such as numerous kidnappings and murders, also occur at an alarming rate.
Meanwhile the economy is struggling, partly due to the Asian financial meltdown of the late 1990s but mostly because of internal political problems. Some 40 per cent of the country's 80 million population live below the poverty line and 15 million Filipino children are malnourished, according to government studies. In 1996, the exchange rate was 26 Philippines pesos to the American dollar; now the U.S. dollar is worth about 50 pesos.
Canada is among the numerous donor nations in the Philippines. In the area of health, the Canadian Red Cross (CRC), supported financially by the Canadian International Development Agency, is working with the Philippines National Red Cross in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, one of the country's poorest regions, to reduce the rates of death and disease among mothers and young children. The maternal mortality rate in Mindanao is 320 per 100,000, or almost double the national average, while the infant mortality rate is 63 for every 1,000 births, considerably higher than the 48.9 per 1,000
.
The CRC's five-year, $3.1-million Primary Health Care Project was established in 1997 and when it ends in December 2002, it will have assisted directly some 750,000 people in 16 municipalities. Many of its beneficiaries include those displaced by the fighting between the government forces and the separatist insurgents, or those who have returned to their war-damaged communities when interim peace agreements are reached.
The primary health project's main aim has been to train local health workers and volunteers to improve conditions in their communities by educating them about the need for better nutrition, expanding an immunization program and providing a cleaner environment in and around their homes and villages. It also has included meetings with municipal leaders to interest them in improving health conditions in their areas.
The program concludes in December 2002 and it is expected that the locally trained health workers will continue to provide their services in collaboration with the regional, government-run health units after its conclusion.
