Braving the seas: CARD reaches Isla Agutaya

The island town of Agutaya in Palawan is one of the many remote island municipalities in the Philippines that is very difficult to reach. In terms of access to health care, the municipality lacks not only medical specialists but also medical treatment and facilities.

Despite the 8-hour motor boat from Coron, Palawan, the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD), Inc. braved the seas and set up a microfinance operation in the area since 2015.

CARD, Inc. provides financial services such as microloans, microsavings, microinsurance, and community development programs like education scholarship and health protection among its clients.

In response to the growing needs of its clients in terms of health care, the Microfinance and Health Protection (MaHP) Unit of CARD MRI organized a community health fair in the area March 12-13, 2019.

A total of 865 microfinance clients and their dependents and the general public of Isla Agutaya benefitted from the health fair conducted.

Among the services rendered for free by MaHP were medical consultation, dental check up and tooth extraction, optical services, and health awareness on various diseases.

“Palawan is known for its beautiful and amazing tourist destinations but behind of this is our socioeconomically-challenged Filipino families in the remote areas like in Isla Agutaya that needs medical assistance and attention that lead us to conduct the CHD,” said Dr. Roderick Belen, MaHP Deputy Director.

The MaHP team had also the chance to meet Dr. Lionel Peters, the only doctor in the area who was then known as the “Doctor de Motor.” He has been in the island for four years now and is serving more than 13,000 residents.

“Dr. Peters’ commitment to serve is very inspiring. He inspired us to do more and to always go beyond,” added Dr. Belen.

CARD, Inc. through its MaHP unit is set to conduct more CHDs in the coming months especially to areas where access to health care is limited. To date, CARD has more than 2,000 clients in Isla Agutaya and more than 1.9 million clients nationwide.

“This will never be the last health fair we will conduct in the area. We will visit again Isla Agutaya and hopefully reach more families and provide extensive health services,” Dr. Belen concluded.