This is my second visit to the province of Negros Oriental this year. Since my last visit, we have moved our office to a nice spacious apartment in a quiet neighbourhood of Dumaguete. 

 

I arrive by plane from Cebu on July 19th and I am met at the airport by Ireen as well as PSHF trustees Analyn and Mary Blanche who are spending a few days in the province helping Ireen and being exposed to the work we do here.

 

Our work in Negros Oriental started way back in 1992*. Our first field office was in the seaside barangay of Guba, just outside the town of Santa Catalina. Over the years, we have expanded our areas of operation to include barangays in the towns of Tanjay and Mabinay.

 

Mabinay is nestled in the hills of central Negros Oriental province; there are 32 barangays in the town and PSHF has projects in two of them -  Lamdas and Paniabonan. 

 

A field trip to Mabinay

 

On August 7th, Ireen and I visited Mabinay to interview farming loan applicants. The bus journey took two and a half hours. We disembarked beside a small market in Paniabonan and Lydia, our area field worker was there to welcome us. 

 

We walk to the home of Nenita where we shall be conducting our interviews. She and her husband had a loan from us in 2016 to buy a cow for ploughing; regrettably the cow was later sold to pay the bills when their youngest son was hospitalised. The poor boy had rheumatic heart disease and hydrocephalus. Sadly, he subsequently died and we waived the balance on the loan.

 

More recently, it is Nenita herself who has had health issues. It was in February last year that Lydia had told Ireen that Nenita was having cervical bleeding. A month later, Ireen visited Mabinay to release some loan amounts to individuals and dropped by to see Nenita. Ireen discovered that she had recently been hospitalised due to her condition and had felt traumatised by the treatment. It was only on her last day that she received a diagnosis - a cyst in the womb - but by then she was overcome with fear of any further treatment and asked her husband to take her home.

 

I have two interviews to do on Nenita’s porch and I do both of them concurrently. Emelin and Willie are applying for a loan to buy 25 sacks of fertiliser to apply to their sugarcane crop and Celsa wants to borrow funds to buy a cow for ploughing. The interview is quite straightforward and I conclude it by asking them what the happiest and saddest events have been in their lives. To the former question, the answer is to have bonding times when family members get together. As for sad times, all three of them talked of the devastation wrought upon their lives by super typhoon Odette in December, 2021. Emelin and Willie lost six coconut trees and the roof of their home and Celsa had a big tree fall on her home; thankfully they had earlier evacuated to a safe place.

 

Our next set of interviews is in the Barangay Hall of Lamdas. We take a tricycle to get there. On arrival, I am greeted by the Barangay captain and we have a short chat. I ask him about the challenges of managing the affairs of the community and he tells me that lack of resources is the most pressing concern. The barangay receives just 2 million pesos ($38,000) a year from the national government; support from the province is on a per project basis.

 

Meeting a midwife

 

Only one of our applicants has arrived and it is Christina, the barangay’s sole midwife. While waiting for the others to arrive, I engage in conversation with Christina as I am keen eager to know about her life as a midwife in a small community.  It transpires that her services are not often required in the barangay itself but she is also on call from the lying-in clinic in the town proper. Her salary amounts to 370 pesos ($7) a day for 28 days a month paid for by the Local Government Unit (LGU).

 

I am intrigued to know about family planning and the birthrate in Lamdas. She tells me that the pill is provided for free by the health Center and is the most popular means of birth control accounting for 40% of women of child bearing age and 50% of women use no contraception at all. Birth rates are coming down as is the case throughout the Philippines.

 

With the other applicants not yet here, I conduct my interview with Christina. Also present is Charmaine, not an applicant but interested to know about PSHF. Charmaine is one of ten health workers in the barangay earning an honorarium of 850 pesos ($16) a month. My interview with Christina is straightforward; she would like a loan to purchase fertiliser for application to her sugarcane crop. She tells me that she hopes to make a net income of 60,000 pesos ($1,100) from her crop planted on 7,000 square metres of land.

 

At the conclusion of my interview, a lady I recognise comes up to me and gives me a warm hug. It is Maria whom we helped with lab tests and medication for a cervical polyp in 2019. 

 

Interviews in the Barangay Hall

 

My interview is concluded by the time the other applicants arrive. I recognise two of them and realise that I had interviewed them for their previous loans. We move from the porch of the Health Center to a bigger space outside the two offices of the Barangay Hall. The captain very kindly offers me an office chair to sit on. There are four applicants in all and we all gather in a semi circle with Ireen acting as my interpreter. The applications are all for loans pertaining to sugarcane cultivation. 

 

I discover that Ambrosio, one of the applicants is the official representative with the barangay of the indigenous people residing in Lamdas. He tells me that there 89 households of indigenous people including Ambrosio and his wife and two daughters living in the barangay. Apparently, all barangays in the Philippines with indigenous people’s households have a tribal elder to represent them in the barangay. Ambrosio was elected to the post by the group of elders; he was selected on account of his being able to read and write and his knowledge of the tribe’s history and genealogy. He also speaks remarkably good English.

 

The return journey

 

By 3pm, the interviews are concluded and we bid our farewells to the applicants promising they will have approvals to their loans soon. Ambrosio and Renante give Ireen and me a ride to the main road on their motorcycles and before long an aircon bus appears in the distance. We are lucky to get a ride so soon. 

 

The journey back to Dumaguete is smooth and I seize the opportunity of taking a few photos of the remarkable scenery on the descent from the hills back down to the coast.

 

We are approaching Dumaguete when Ireen receives a text message from Winelin, our field worker for the western side of the province. She is waiting for us to return to the office. She is with Elvie, the grandmother of Riley, an 8 year old boy with down syndrome who has been in ICU suffering from pneumonia. 

 

An hour later, Ireen and I are back in the office and I have 20,000 pesos in  hand to give to Elvie; I was able to get funds from an ATM at the city Mall after getting off the bus. We promise Elvie that we shall visit Riley in the hospital tomorrow.

 

The provincial hospital

 

We have two children to visit in the Provincial hospital, Riley being one of them and the other one is John, also aged 8 who is in ICU with possible leukemia.

 

Ireen and I walk over there in the middle of the afternoon. On arrival, I notice vehicles including an ambulance with their engines idling and polluting the air. I ask about the whereabouts of the administration office so that I can report this later on.

 

We go to visit Riley first. His grandfather Ruben is in the corridor outside his room. He tells us that Elvie went home as she was not feeling well; we are aware of the fact that she has high blood pressure. I go in to see Riley first and Ireen stays outside to talk to Ruben. Riley’s down’s syndrome is not immediately obvious. His mother Girlie and aunt Jennifer greet me warmly. Riley came out of ICU yesterday and looks quite well; he is sitting up with a phone in hand. He is on a video call to his grandmother Elvie and his 8 year old cousin Allijah. He passes the phone to me so that I can greet his grandmother - sadly she is lying down with dizziness due to her high blood pressure.

 

Ireen and I go the nurses’ station outside the ICU next as we want to meet Analyn, the mother of John. A nurse goes inside the ICU to let Analyn know that we are there. She comes out and Ireen talks to her; it transpires that John has been in ICU for four days due to high blood pressure and a bloated stomach. We have already given Analyn funds for John to have blood transfusions and to undergo a bone marrow test which will determine whether or not he has leukemia. 

 

Next, we go to the administration office and we are fortunate that our visit coincides with the arrival of Fritzie, the administrator and Dr. Llosa the hospital head. I explain the purpose of my visit to Dr. Llosa and he is receptive. I promise to send him a copy of an article published in the Philippine Star a year ago in which I was featured explaining the perils of engine idling on human health.

 

A touching moment marks our last day in Dumaguete

 

Ireen and I are leaving for Cebu on a Cebu Pacific flight at 9.30 this evening. There is just one appointment today; we have arranged for Jamaica, our recently hired student intern to see a dentist. Jamaica is the 18 year old daughter of Madonna, a former loan recipient of ours.  The family are very poor and Ireen had the idea of having Jamaica become a student intern of ours and be trained to help us in the field.

 

On the day she came to the office for the first time last Saturday, we noticed that she had a poor set of front teeth. Ireen and I both agreed that we should provide her with a grant to receive proper dental care.

 

Today is the appointed day and Jamaica is feeling somewhat uneasy. The dentist is kind and reassures her that all will be well. Ireen and I are instructed to come back in an hour; Madonna stays in the waiting room while Jamaica has her treatment.

 

When we come back, we discover that Jamaica has had seven fillings! She will need jackets on four teeth so this will be done on her next visit.

 

In the afternoon after Jamaica has returned home with her mother, Ireen hands me a letter to read - it is from Jamaica. In it she describes how she was teased in high school because of her teeth. She would try to ignore the remarks but deep down it hurt. She lost her self confidence and found it difficult to make friends. It is a poignant letter to read but we can only hope and pray that Jamaica will regain her self confidence and joyful spirits as she joins our PSHF family.

 

Richard Foster

August 2023