It was all paid off

Marivic and her new-born baby Kathryn. (San Vicente, Northern Samar)
Days after the Solar Scholar workshop, we scheduled a trip to the island town of San Vicente Northern Samar to assess the power situation of their Rural Health Unit headed by Dr. Nenilyn Francisco.

At first, we were lost because we took the ride from Calbayog to Catarman which eventually not the proper route. We rode a jeepney from Catarman to Allen and tricycle to San Isidro, Northern Samar. It was quite a long trip.

We need to ride the boat from San Isidro port to San Vicente at 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon. We were lucky to be on time. The boat left at exactly 2:00 o’clock leaving us a lot of dust in our faces.

It took two hours to get into the island. The island was enveloped with darkness when we arrived. Locals meet some passengers at the port to welcome their relatives.
At first we already planned of sleeping along the port area where there is an abandoned building where we can protect ourselves from cold of the night.

We went to the Municipal Building to meet one of our solar scholars, Jetrud, to accompany us to the Rural Health Unit so we can assess the power needs of the facility. My colleague climbs the roof while I am taking pictures on significant areas of the rooms.

We meet Dr. Francisco and told her about our purpose. The response was positive enough to pursue our plans to solarize the health center. After the short talk, we were then accompanied by Alvin, one of our Solar Scholars, to the mother who gave birth to a baby girl the day after the workshop was held in Tacloban City.

It was late in the afternoon when Marivic Naga experienced the pain of labor and is about to give birth to her baby. The room was dark and uncomfortable for the laboring moms to give birth. 

Alvin, knowing the medical situation, immediately plugged in the electric fan and the LED bulb for the comfort of the people in the delivery area.
Due to this situation, Marivic and other laboring moms had comfort in delivering their babies that afternoon.

When I saw the smiles and her cute little face, it feels like that my fears of riding a small boat on a wavy afternoons to cross the islands, going to the different remote areas in the region and the efforts made by our RE-Charge team was all paid off.


We thanked our San Vicente Solar Scholars for being active in responding to this kind of medical emergencies.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The various dialects of Eastern Visayas

Image
This photo was taken during the celebration of Tacloban City fiesta last 2014.  Learning is fun especially if you’re interested in exploring new things that come your way each day. One of my interests is learning on how to speak the various dialects of Eastern Visayas. I traveled a lot in the past few weeks touring around the beautiful places of our region. I never had a travel in my college years. It’s all about waking up in the morning, speaking behind the microphone and studying at night. Since I was a kid, I’ve heard people speaking in “bisaya” and I find it very short but sweet to the ears. I found out that in Eastern Visayas, the inhabitants of some towns and provinces were speaking in “bisaya”. The province of Southern Leyte widely speaks “bisaya” as the place was closer to Central Visayas where large numbers of inhabitants were speaking the same dialect. The word “pangga” is short for “palangga” means “loved” is the sweetest among all words I had ever he
Read more

First Badjao teacher aims to produce more professionals from their tribe

Image
By: Lottie Salarda The pride of Brgy Dolho, Bato Leyte, Jesus Menjani Esmani, the first Badjao teacher in their community, is committed to produce more Badjao professionals by helping his nephews to get education. In his 22 years of working as a high school teacher, Esmani has produced two Electrical Engineers, one graduate of Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Bachelor of Science in Fisheries. Esmani, as the youngest child in the family, witnessed the hardships of his parents raising them by fishing as their means of livelihood. “ If there’s a storm, it means there will no food available for us. It’s so painful to see my family in that kind of situation, so with the encouragement of my high school teachers, and with the help of my siblings, I pursued my studies and dreamed that one day I will have a job,” said Esmani. He sells beauty and food products with his teachers, classmates and friends in school to help sust
Read more

DFA now requires online appointment system in Tacloban City

Image
By: Lottie Salarda Tacloban City – The office of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Tacloban City is now requiring the passport applicants to go online to schedule their appointment. This initiative of DFA Manila started last July 1 to lessen the long lines of the waiting applicants outside their office. According to DFA Tacloban Consular Head Karen Terado, the online appointment system aims to have an efficient process of applicant’s passport. They just need to go to online by logging in at https://www.passport.gov.ph and follow the procedures. Terado said that Senior Citizens, infants, persons with disabilities and OFWs do not necessarily need to apply online because they are their priority. Although their office still accepts walk-in applicants because they are still in the transition period, they encouraged the public who are going to apply for a passport to apply online and follow the procedure. The Regional Consular Office accepts a maximum of 180 appoi
Read more