Grabe– the Tagalog expression to describe something serious, extreme, or exceptional, which is exactly how I would describe the first half of my practicum experience working with the Foundations for Medical Relief of Children (FIMRC) at the project site in the Philippines. FIMRC has partnered with the University of the Philippines to work with local governments and aid in the expansion and implementation of community health and development programs in the province of Cavite. Currently, the majority of the organization’s resources are directed towards the implementation of the program PhilPEN, which stands for the “Philippine Package of Essential Non-Communicable Disease Interventions”, a Department of Health program adapted from the World Health Organization. PhilPEN focuses on the prevention, early screening and timely treatment of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and stroke through comprehensive screenings of all community members above 25 and lifestyle modification programming.

The main focus of my role is to aid the Rural Health Clinic in their transition from paper to digital health record collection and management, in effort to make the information collected from PhilPen more accessible, and therefore more useful. So far, it has been a positive experience and I have had the opportunity to learn a lot from my colleagues and the community. I am making sufficient progress with the development of the digital database, and I am satisfied with everything I have accomplished with the Health Information System. However, for me, the most enjoyable part has been participating in the actual data collection process. Early in the mornings, before it becomes too hot, I have the privilege of joining teams of Community Health Workers as they venture out into the community to complete the substantial task that is census data collection. Since everyone over the age of 25 must be screened, Community Health Workers, who are volunteers from the community, travel house-to-house to collect vitals and medical histories to ensure everyone is recorded. The Community Health Workers are truly impressive and an essential part of the program. Without them, data collection would take longer to complete and would be significantly more challenging as the Community Health Workers provide the connection to the community and are the reason so many members of the community are willing to open their doors and allow the organization to collect personal information. Working with such a dedicated team of community members has only further emphasized to me the importance and value of community engagement in research, and I am grateful to work alongside each of them.