 |
MSF in PhilippinesLast updated: July 2005 MSF ends work with street childrenMSF has worked in The Philippines for many years. Teams began providing assistance during natural disasters in the 1980s and MSF later developed programs to assist the most vulnerable, particularly children living on the streets of the country's capital. This last project was closed in early January 2005 and its activities were handed over to local groups to continue. One of MSF's main activities in The Philippines was its program for children and adolescents living on the streets of the capital city, Manila. The street children project operated within the city's District 5 and targeted 200 out of an estimated 200,000 street children living in the area. The program used a medico-psychosocial approach to address the problems encountered by street children, their families and their communities. In January 2005, MSF handed over the project to other organizations working specifically with the country's street children. Youngsters' reproductive and sexual health was the major health concern: sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are a big problem among this group. Many children are forced into prostitution to survive—The Philippines has one of the fastest growing commercial sex industries in the region. MSF gave medical and psychological care to young people engaged in commercial sex work, as well as to victims of sexual, physical and psychological abuse. Furthermore, MSF helped street children gain access to health care as well as to legal support. Starting in 1997, MSF carried out water and sanitation projects with the help of local residents in one of the poorer slum areas of Malabon City, in the capital, Manila. These projects created new drainage and water distribution systems designed to improve access to clean water and reduce the risk of disease amidst the slum's crowded living conditions. MSF also ran a supplementary feeding program here in 2003 to help improve children's health. Malnutrition is a recurring phenomenon in The Philippines and MSF continually monitored the situation in the capital area. That same year, MSF provided emergency aid to a large number of displaced people living on Mindanao, an island in the south of the country. MSF began its intervention after the island was rocked by an outbreak of violence, rooted in a conflict that has been going on for three decades between Muslim rebels and governmental forces. MSF has worked in The Philippines since 1997. |
|
|
