RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2012 www.PosterPresentations.com Our team has completed the first step in creating a long-term partnership between the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Gawad Kalinga. Gawad Kalinga was formally established in 2003 with the goal of alleviating poverty in the Philippines by providing impoverished individuals with homes. Since then it has expanded its work to over 2,000 organized communities and has been adopted in other developing nations like Cambodia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. With these communities now in place, Gawad Kalinga reached out to the University of Massachusetts with the hope of improving the health of these neighborhoods. This partnership will allow the medical, graduate and nursing students to travel to the Philippines to participate in inter-disciplinary public health projects that benefit the communities of Gawad Kalinga. Two first-year medical students traveled from Worcester to Manila for six weeks in order to pilot this partnership. The Global Health curriculum included a needs assessment of the Enchanted Farm community, preceptorship sessions in the clinic, and a community presentation on a need they identified in the course of their stay. The Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm is a community about 2 hours North of Manila in the province of Bulacan. The goal of the Enchanted Farm is to provide a campus that encourages local farming, entrepreneurship and hosts a fledgling university. There is also a community of about fifty families that lives amidst the many visitors, interns, and staff that are present on the farm. This allows immersion with the community and a better understanding of its unique needs. The members of the community generally come from a lifetime of impoverishment and take great pride in their home. After two weeks of immersion it was clear that many community members were deeply worried about losing their homes to natural disasters such as fire, flooding, or earthquake. This observation served as the basis for the rest of project. Introduc>on After we made this observation our team could then to try to find solutions that would allow us to address the risks of natural disaster and provide a sense of security for those most at risk. The most pressing threat to the community living at Gawad Kaliga’s Enchanted Farm is an earthquake. The farm sits on the Valley Fault System (VFS) which possesses the threat of a large scale earthquake with a magnitude of 7 or higher. The fault has not caused a quake in 374 years but is hypothesized to move every 400 years. This potential resulting earthquake is known throughout research groups and the media at the “Big One”. The fault line contains two segments, an East Valley Fault line and a West Valley Fault line. While most preparedness efforts have gone into preparing Metro Manila for an earthquake, the West Fault line runs to the base of a 47 year old dam in Bulacan. The failure of this dam would not only cause large scale flooding, but also electrical fires and wide-spread destruction that would overwhelm local emergency response. The solution to this inherent risk is to reduce the risk of this community to respond to its own needs during a time of disaster. Then we can expand and adapt our risk reduction efforts to other communities throughout the Philippines. Objec>ves 1.) Are you afraid that you might lose your house DUE to a natural disaster? 2.) What would you do if the ground starts to shake? 3.) Do you feel prepared to handle a natural disaster? 4.) Would being more prepared for natural disaster help your community feel safer? 5.) Are you afraid that you might lose your house due to an earthquake? 6.) What would you do FIRST if the ground starts to shake? 7.) Do you feel you know what you have to do to stay safe if an earthquake happens? 8.) If you know what you have to do to stay safe during an earthquake, will this help your community feel your lives are safer? 9.) Are you afraid that you might lose your house DUE to a fire? 10.) What would you do FIRST if there was a fire in your home? 11.) Do you feel you know what you have to do to stay safe if your home or a nearby home was on fire? 12.) If you know what you have to do to stay safe during a fire, will this help your community feel your lives are safer? 13.) Are you afraid that your house MAY SUSTAIN DAMAGE DUE to a flood? 14.) What would you do FIRST if there was a flood in your home? 15.) Do you feel you know what you have to do to stay safe if there was a flood in your community? 16.) If you know what you have to do to stay safe during a flood, will this help your community feel your lives are safer? The Philippines have constantly dealt with natural disasters and the region has seen much instability in recent years with earthquake in the Visayas, Malaysia, and Nepal. Even the risk from the “Big One” has been highly publicized and there have been outcries from the public for increased public preparation efforts. Many international organizations have published research that supports these preparation efforts. As an example, the World Health Organization has the following framework which we have adopted for our efforts: RISK= HAZARD x VULNERABILITY / PREPAREDNESS This model demonstrates that there are many ways to prepare a community against natural disaster. Our internship program stressed on us the importance of having community support for any initiative that our team was considering. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PhilVolcs) produces and distributes a number of informational packets that would be helpful. These packets include instructions on what to do before, during and after and earthquake. Other resources include home self-checks, disaster kits, and other educational materials and are available in Tagalog and English. Before reaching out to PhilVolcs and other potential partners, we held a community meeting to assess the community needs. Possible Interven>ons Conclusions / Future Work Our community meeting had a strong turn out with nearly forty community members coming to the community center at the farm. The staff at the farm volunteered to assist in giving the survery in Tagalog. The community meeting also made us consider what goes into creating a safe community. The three tenants of a safe community include preparation, response, and recovery. The response and recovery to and from a natural disaster requires a significant longitudinal public and private investment. The community discussed pooling their resources for disaster kits in their community and they felt strongly that having kits in the community would help them feel more prepared for a disaster. We have yet to collate the results of the formal survey but it seems that community and fiscal support for this initiative will be welcomed by the the individuals living at the GK Enchanted Farm. Philippines Red Cross Emergency Preparedness Kit: Water – 1 Gallon Per Person Per Day Food – Non-perishable Food for Three Days Emergency Tools / Gear – Map, Whistle, Knife, Rope, Flashlight Personal Effects – Clothing, Toiletries, Towels, Alcohol Important Documents – Deed, Government ID, Birth Certificates Special Needs – Prescription and Emergency Medications First Aid Kit – Bandages, Disposable Gloves, Antiseptic Other Identified Areas of Future Work: Nutrition Urgent Care and First Aid Practices Water Treatment and Heavy Metal Contamination Dental Care and Hygiene Education Pre and Post-Natal care Improve Detection of TB and other diseases Create Dedicated Budget for Health Access to Care and Consultation References “Building Resilient Communities” The World Bank. “Risk Reduction and Emergency Preparedness” World Health Organization. 2007 “When Disaster Strikes: Promising Practices” Manpower Development Corporation http://www.redcross.org/prepare/disaster http://www.redcross.org/prepare/location/home-family/get-kit/anatomy When There is No Doctor – David Werner Acknowledgements Dr. Margarita Castro-Zarraga Dr. Elen Solis Dr. Roel Caganda Dr. Christian Gomez Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm Innovations Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm Rachel Le The University of Santo Tomas Community Pediatric Rotation Residents Joanie, Leslie and the Admin team The Titas and Community Health Workers Everyone at the GK E-Farm that has made this such a wonderful experience! Jerome Rogich 1 , Margarita CastroZarraga 2,3 Global Health Pathway 1 , Department of Family Medicine and Community Health 2 University of Massachuse2s Medical School CommiRee of Global Health – Gawad Kalinga Boston 3 Disaster Preven/on and Preparedness in the Philippines Safe Community Prepara/on Recovery Response Survey Ques>ons