PMA’S ‘Doctors on Boat’ help typhoon-affected families
Volunteer doctors from the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) have been making the rounds to provide medical, psychosocial, and relief goods to typhoonaffected areas.
From its Bicol Region mission, the group moved to the National Capital Region, targeting typhoon victims in Tumana, Marikina City over the weekend.
Doctors on Boat have been on the go since Typhoon Quinta battered Luzon in October. Quinta was followed by Siony and Supertyphoon Rolly which badly affected the Bicol Region.
With the havoc wrought by Typhoon Ulysses, PMA held a mercy mission at the H. Bautista Elementary School along JP Rizal Street in Barangay Tumana, Markina City.
Dr. Benito Atienza, the group’s president said in a statement that the PMA Doctors on Boat has served 430 families who are currently housed at the H. Bautista Elementary School, one of the city’s most crowded evacuation centers.
“We have distributed various medicines including vitamins and also the much- needed relief goods for everybody in the evacuation center. The PMA is grateful for the support of the Philippine National Police Maritime Group,
Mercury Drug, and also our partners at the ongoing PMA free nationwide telemedicine service DOC- PHILIPPINE S ( www.docph.org), particularly the Clean Air Philippines Movement, Beta Sigma Fraternity Medical Group, and the League of Data- privacy and Cybersecurity Advocates of the Philippines for making this humanitarian mission possible
nationwide,” Atienza said.
The group was scheduled to visit Barangay Kasiglahan, Montalban, Rizal next before finally visiting Cagayan Valley, which has been 80 percent flooded as of Sunday.
“Some of the ailments we saw at this evacuation center are mild cases of respiratory and gastrointestinal problems common mostly in these precarious situations,” he said.
Atienza reminded evacuees to observe the minimum health standard protocol for the protection of those currently housed at evacuation centers.
He noted that in Tumana, Marikina, the evacuees are distributed at the average ratio of 8 to 15 families in a room “so we have strongly advised for social distancing and other minimum health standard protocol to be strictly observed at all times.”
Tumana Barangay Chairman Ziffried Ancheta acknowledged the observation and expressed his gratitude to the volunteer doctors.
The PMA Doctors on Boats project started last 2009 in response to the disastrous events of Typhoon Ondoy.
The group made its presence felt during post Yolanda and others natural calamities including the torments of perennial “Habagat” seasons that resulted in floods.
The humanitarian project targets basically unserved, isolated and inundated areas affected by storms unreachable by land transport.
While it is called “Doctors on Boat,” the project also involves land- based operations to deliver charitable medical and psychosocial services to victims of disasters, including delivery of relief goods and potable water, temporarily relocated in evacuation centers nationwide.