MikeLigalig.com

By Ven rebo Arigo

Basic reproductive health will be integrated in local disaster plans as Gov. Edgar Chatto gets totally serious in capacitating Bohol’s risk reduction and emergency response.

In actual calamities, post-disaster times or lingering destabilizing events, there are disruptions of vital services which include neglected maternal and child health care.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) supports the province in meeting the needs and gaps timely with the inclusion of humanitarian response that addresses reproductive health in its country program next year.

UNFPA’s Ronnel Villas cited the province’s “high appreciation” for disaster preparedness, but there are telling essentials between responding to risks and reducing them by higher possible scale.

Focal capitol persons last week underwent a two-day UNFPA seminar-workshop right on the integration of the minimum initial service package (MISP) for reproductive health in emergency situations in the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan (PDRRMP).

The MISP effectively applies during post-emergencies when essential services are absent or wanting.

It ought to be included in the plans of all other local DRRM councils, and that a national policy for its countrywide application is necessary, according to workshop resource speaker Department of Health (DOH) Region 5 Director Nestor Santiago.

Santiago shared the Bicol experience, which proved the supreme importance of MISP to the health emergency response system in the region.

Boholanos could just imagine how the Bicolanos should react to the risks and hazards of Mayon and Bulusan volcanoes, average of 22 typhoons a year, floods, earthquakes, epidemics and even armed conflicts in their area.

The UNFPA-capitol workshop gained valuable inputs from Dr. Rose Rempillo, also of DOH-5, on integrating reproductive health in early recovery and post-disaster interventions.

While packaging MISP for reproductive health into the DRRM plan of Bohol, it is equally deemed essential to create the local disaster risk reduction and management offices (LDRRMOs).

The governor chairs the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) as mandated by Republic Act 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010.

When he composed the PDRRMC last year, the governor at the same time created the Provincial DRRM Office (PDRRMO) which is initially headed by executive assistant Anthony Damalerio.

Damalerio attended the UNFPA workshop, which was also participated by officials and representatives from the Provincial Health Office (PHO), Philippine National Police (PNP), Provincial Human Resource Management and Development Office (PHRMDO), Red Cross and Telephone and Radio System Integrated Emergency Response (TARSIER 117).

A major component of the PDRRMC, the TARSIER 117 serves as the council’s communication nerve center.

TOP 3 MISP ELEMENTS

The MISP for reproductive health as integrated in the DRRM plan has three core focuses, namely, the maternal and child health care management, prevention of sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV, and prevention of sexual or gender-based violence.

The risk of sexual violence can get high in emergency situation when protection mechanism is absent.

The UNFPA has observed that humans tend to make sex even in the middle of lingering emergency conditions “to feel they remain normal.”

Studies show that child births do not stop in times of risks and many mothers give births in evacuation sites.

Many pregnant women give births in emergency situations such as calamities because of stress.

These are confirmed by study results gathered from different risk and emergency conditions around the world, according to the UNFPA whose coordinator in Bohol, Ma. Solita Virtudazo, helped in facilitating the workshop.

“How many pregnant women gave births at the height of the recent worst typhoons in Luzon? Who were the service providers of last resort?” questions like these were raised in the workshop

Villas, who is the UNFPA humanitarian response coordinator, asserted that the integration of the MISP for reproductive health in the DRRM plan is crucial to responding to such situations.

Effectively, this will help ensure that if possible, no woman should die giving life.

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