2014-08-11
AMDA Reconstruction Activity for Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines

Since last March, the free mobile clinic has been offered to the affected people from Typhoon Haiyan by Leyte Medical Society in collaboration with AMDA as a part of our reconstruction activity.

On July 27th, the medical mission was conducted in Magallanes Area of Tacaloban City, one of the worst-hit seashore by Typhoon Haiyan. Thousands of people lost their lives in the area, and the current population is 1,710. Most of the men are fishermen, fish vendors, carpenters, small-store keepers, street-food vendors while most of the women are housewives. A number of them are unemployed due to the disaster.

After their wooden-made house located few meters away from seashore were destroyed by the typhoon, some of the people were relocated to the temporary shelters at different location. But recently most of them returned to Magallanes, rebuilt their houses and went on with their daily living.

The team of 13 doctors, 3 secretaries, 1 driver and some Barangay Health Workers could see 131 adult patients and 191 pediatric patients at mobile clinic. Most common signs and symptoms among adult and pediatric patients were common cold and cough. During the mission, the team also distributed Health Kits consisting of face towels and toothbrushes to pediatric patients. Some mothers explained that their children had lost their toothbrush or they had never used a toothbrush. Additionally, a bottled fruit juice with nutritious packs of Biscuits were distributed to ease their hunger for the morning.

The medical mission in Magallanes Area where most of the population live under poverty line was really welcomed, and some people lined up for the service as early as 8 a.m. One patient said "We really thank the Japanese and LMS for this Medical Mission and we hope this will be a continuous project so we don't need to buy medicines.". Not only him but also many people said that the free medicines were helping out with their household expenses as they had to spend a lot of money to rehabilitate their homes. The medical mission will be a great help for them to augment their budget for house, food, transportation, schooling and other daily expenses.

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