TVIRD assists The Maple Tree Foundation in a Medical Mission to the Remote Muslim village of Malambuhangin
It was a day like no other for the residents of Malambuhangin. The coming of visitors to their far-flung village was an opportunity to be given basic health care, which rarely happens. For the visiting doctors, dentists, nurses and health workers, their coming was a source of a deep sense of fulfillment; they were serving a community with the least opportunity of access to proper medical care.
Malambuhangin straddles the municipal boundary of Siocon and Sirawai and is central to 8 villages: 2 in Siocon (Micubo and Latabon) and 6 in Sirawai (Pina, Panabutan, Balubuhan, Balatakan, and San Roque). These coastal communities are predominantly Muslims tribes (Kalibugans, Iranuns, Maguindanaos and Tausogs), former Moro National Liberation Front (Chairman Nur Misuari, Tausog) or sympathizers of the breakaway Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Murad Ibrahim, Maguindanao).
The MTF Medical Mission team consisted of:
• Local government
• Municipal Health Officer, RT Lim, Zamboanga Sibugay
• 4 Medical Doctors, 2 Dentists
• 1 nurse, 1 mid-wife
• TVIRD representatives
• The Philippine Army
The team travelled to this isolated community by land for one day. The Philippine Army and the TVIRD SCAA personnel secured the location to facilitate the medical mission.
For one whole day, the village in this southernmost barangay of Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte was in a festive mood as hundreds of residents of Malambuhangin, and neighboring villages came in droves to avail themselves of the free medical check-up and consultations.
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Above, Malambuhangin resident Namiya Sahirin, wearing traditional Muslim black headgear called ‘turong’ (center), accompanies her kin for check-up with Dr. Jason dela Cruz (foreground left). Below, villagers fall in line while waiting for their turn to receive medical attention and free medicines at the Malambuhangin Elementary School, which served as the temporary clinic for the medical mission. “
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A total of 357 villagers benefitted from the mission. Muslim villagers young and old, mothers with their little children in tow, fell in line either for dental or medical attention. A doctor went inside a house to check on a village elder who recently suffered from stroke. A truckload of people from neighboring villages went to Malambuhangin and queued towards a classroom transformed into a makeshift clinic.
Namiya Sahirin, a 38 year-old resident, was beaming after she and her relatives emerged from the clinic. “Not only was I able to have my tooth – which had been bothering me for some time – extracted, we also got free medicines and vitamins.
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Above, Dr. Art Luspo examines a Muslim woman while her grandchild waits. Below, mothers and children of Malambuhangin and neighboring villages troop to the school for the free medical check-up
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“We are very far from the Siocon town center that’s why it’s so difficult for us to get health services from the government,” explained Ibrahim Abdulmari, the barangay chairman of Malambuhangin. “Most of the people here do not have jobs and earn only from fishing and coconut farming, which is why they cannot afford to get sick,” he added. “The last time there was a medical mission here was about two years ago. We really thank the Maple Tree Foundation and the university students of Mount Royal College in Calgary who funded this program.”
Dr. Romulo Caballero, a TVIRD member of the medical mission team, considers Malambuhangin special. “Of all the places I have been to during medical missions in Siocon, it appears to be the most economically depressed, but the people here are warm, happy and caring.”
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Top photo shows Dr. Romulo Caballero examining a mother and her children. He finds the people warm and caring despite their impoverished condition. In middle photo Dr. Jason dela Cruz enters the house of a village elder who suffered a mild stroke to give the latter much-needed medical attention. In bottom photo, TVIRD midwife Marilou Prestoza dispenses medicines and vitamins to mothers and babies.
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Anang Juhara Kaayao, a midwife from the Siocon health office, has been visiting Malambuhangin every month for the last three years as the assigned town health worker. “For many years, this area has been considered ‘critical’ as its residents are known to be sympathizers of secessionist rebel groups,” she said. “Now, the people are slowly beginning to go out in the open, to look up to the government in the hope that progress will come. “I am very much thankful to the Maple Tree Foundation for taking notice of this barangay’s sad plight.”
Kaayao is one of the six health workers (midwives) from the local government of Siocon who went with the medical mission to Malambuhangin. Kaayao, together with Carmelita Escano, Nimfa Lastimado, Jesusa Gante and Pilar Neri, are considered Siocon’s health program “front liners”. They were there, too, when Maple Tree Foundation and TVIRD conducted a medical mission in another isolated village, Panubigan.
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In top photo, from left, Dr. Art Luspo, Malambuhangin Brgy. Chairman Ibrahim Abdulmari, Dr. Jayson de la Cruz and TVIRD staffer Crisanto Indanangan during a break in the mission. In middle photo, a mother comforts her little child who seems to be unsure if he wants a haircut. Bottom photo shows the Malambuhangin Elementary School grounds during the mission.
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“It gives us a deep sense of fulfillment to be able to serve the health needs of the least of our brothers and sisters. It is also quite heartening when the public and private sectors work hand in hand to achieve peace and development in areas like Malambuhangin,” Escano said. (Joseph Arnel Deliverio)
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Top photo, from left, Siocon municipal health workers Jesusa Gante, Elvira Tumacmol, Carmelita Escaño, Nimfa G. Lastimado and Anang Juhara Kaayao are always present during TVIRD medical missions. “Malambuhangin”, a Tausug Muslim tribal word which means “very sandy”, is thus called for its beautiful beaches, as can be seen in middle photo, fronting the vast Sulu Sea. Apart from its bountiful marine resources, the village boasts of rolling hills that are replete with coconut trees, seen at the bottom photo behind Muslim boys hamming it up for the camera.
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