New Zealand, PDRF to enhance crisis response
THE Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) has launched a special mentorship program on public service continuity to help local health-care workers reduce the delay in delivering life-saving services during disasters and other crises.
Through the “Kalinga para sa Kalusugan ng Komunidad” (Project K3), the PDRF held a virtual orientation for the program on March 4.
The program will adopt a blended-learning approach, which combines self-paced online modules uploaded on PDRF’S electronic-learning platform IADAPT, and will push for three webinar workshops.
PDRF said qualified facilitators on public-service continuity planning will guide participants in drafting. Under the mentorship program, they are expected to create public-private communities of practice and foster new health resilience champions who will both support pandemic response and prepare communities for future calamities.
Ambassador of New Zealand to the Philippines Peter Kell cited the requirement for public-private collaboration to respond to the crisis situation.
“Significant, unexpected and hard-to-predict events are inevitable. Within this uncertain future environment, public-service continuity planning is an important requirement for success,” Kell said. “It is vital that we must build communities which [will not only survive, but also] thrive despite adversity.”
Department of Health Director Dr. Gloria Balboa also acknowledged the need for adopting a whole-ofsociety and a whole-of-nation approach in crisis management, particularly amid the prevailing health crisis.
Key representatives from five cities in Metro Manila—including Navotas, Pasig, Parañaque, Taguig and Valenzuela, with seven hospitals: Philippine General Hospital, Ospital ng Makati, Quirino Memorial Medical Center, Medical City, Philippine National Police General Hospital, Cotabato Sanitarium, and Diliman Doctors Hospital—will participate in a series of self-paced courses and webinars in the coming months.
Project K3 is an initiative of the PDRF as well as the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Aid Program that targets to strengthen the health-care capacities of local government units, health-care institutions, and other local communities nationwide to respond to the public-health crisis and other emerging needs amid the pandemic.