1. Community
Assessment
in
AlabelSarangani
Province
Submitted to:
Mrs. Azucena Quito
Submitted by:
Aura Mae C. Lalisan
ChristelleG. Agustin
Alemar Allecer
October 12, 2012
Alemar Allecer

2. Introduction
Community assessment is one of the methods or strategies that help to measure where our
community is now. This process uses a combination of methods, tools, and procedures to gather
information about what is happening in the community at a specific moment in time. It also gives
the people in the community an idea if the leaders are doing their jobs in maintaining the
environmental health and sanitation as one of their priority. It can also identify the priority items
of concern for community members.
In this assessment that we conducted in our own locality AlabelSarangani Province, we
interviewed some people in the community. We formulated questions in order to get information
about the existing programs and services, the desires and opinions of the community members,
the concerns of key community leaders and to collect data about health status and health
outcomes in the community.
The primarily goal of this paper is to measure where our community is now.
Community core data
Alabel is a 1st class municipality in the province of Sarangani, Philippines. It is the
capital municipality of Sarangani. According to the latest census, it has a population of 71,872
people in 12, 312 households and it is politically divided into 12 barangays. These are Alegria,
Bagacay, Baluntay, DatalAnggas, Domolok, Kawas, Maribulan, Pag-Asa, Paraiso, Poblacion
(Alabel), Spring, Tokawal, Poblacion (Ladol).
Alabel is largely based on agriculture with a high level production of dried coconut meat.
Animal husbandry is the second biggest income earner, notably cattle farming. Other agricultural
products are
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3. coconuts, maize, sugarcane, bananas, pineapples, cotton, mangoes, goat farming, pork,
eggs, beef, fish, charcoal, coconut weaving. It is adjacent to the highly urbanized sea port city of
General Santos.
Each barangay have their own Health Center and their main Health Center is located at
barangay Poblacion(Alabel) together with Dr. Honorato Fabio their Health Head Officer.
Banana Dole is also Located in Alabel were they export their product that they produced.
The Sarangani Agricultural Company Inc. (SACI) where they produced fish like Bangus and
Tilapia is also found there.
Health Care Services
Alabel has 12 barangays and each of it has their own Health Center. The services and the
programs that they offer in their Health Center are Maternal Health Care Services, National
tuberculosis Program, Environmental Health and Sanitation Program, Dental Health Services,and
Clinical Laboratory Services.
Under the Maternal Health Care Services it includes:
-Maternal and New Born Screening for free they also givefree vaccines for infants minimum
children less than 1 year old.first, the BCG (BacilleCalmetGuirine),DTP(Dipththeria Tetanus
and Pertussis) which is given in 3 doses, Hepa B also in 3 doses and last but not the least
Measles Vaccines. In smaller target meaning not all children are qualified for immunization are
also given antiviral vaccines, rotaro vaccines for rotavirus which is the causes of diarrhea
diseases among young children.
As a result the child resistance will increase and if they have a high resistance in a certain
disease they have a big chance that they won’t able acquire the disease again.
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4. -Nutrition Program were they give the parents tips on how to produce nutritious foods for just a
cheaper cost, they also encourage having each family their own vegetable garden and conduct
weight surveys of children in different areas.
In this parents will be able to have an idea on how to produce food that is less in cost and
contains all the nutrients that a child need.
- Family Planningwere they introduce using of pills, condoms, bilateral ligations, lactation
amenorrhea method, promoting breast feeding , natural family planning and etc.
This will ensure that every family will know their responsibility as parents. It will also
takes into account planning your child’s birth for specific times (possibly by spacing births a few
years apart from one another) and planning for a child when you have challenges conceiving one.
Since parents are responsible for providing education, shelter, clothing and food for their
children, family planning has an impact in the financial situation of any family.
-In Dental Health Servicesthey are giving free extractions for young children especially for the
students in elementary and for the adults they just collecting a small amount of money for the
Anastasia and medicine that is to be used. They are also offering free check up and fillings for
the poor ones.
The children would be more safe in an infection because there is a dentist who will guide
him/her to a proper protection towards bacteria or plaque.
-In Clinical Laboratory Servicesthey preformed Urinalysis, Fecalysis, Direct Sputum Smear
Microscopy, blood typing, pregnancy test, platelet count, bleeding time, BSMTP (Blood smear
for malaria parasites), and etc. These examinations are not for free it has legislative fees you
need to pay before you can avail the services.
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5. The people in the community will not be wasting money to go to the city just to have a
laboratory examination because it is available in our own Health Center.
In the Health Center they are not selling medicines because they don’t have the authority
to collect fees instead they are giving it for free and for those medicines that are not available in
the center they are just giving some medications. And most of the patients in the Health Center
are children accompanied by their mother.
They have also build 5 BahayPaanakan (Birthing home) scattered in the municipality
of Alabelbut in terms of functionality only one is going to open this October 2012 located at
PoblacionAlabel near the Health Center.
In this program they made the pregnant woman will be able to deliver their child safely
and efficiently.
The Main Health Center located at PoblacionAlabel have 1 permanent nurse, 5 job order
and 7 national paid nurses, they also have 7 permanent midwives and 6 job orders. They have
also 1 job ordered Medical technologist, 1 Dentist and1 permanent Doctor.
This could help the community to accommodate the people’s problem based on their
health, because they have lots of medical workers they can easily respond to the people needs.
They are also doing ministerial and clinical missions in far flung areas in the form of free
medical and dental check up, feeding program and basic health sanitation together with the
nurses and midwives. But because of they have only one Doctor he preferred to stay in the Main
Health Center.
The Health Center is open from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon until 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm Monday
to Friday.
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6. Common non-communicable disease
- Iron deficiency for pregnant woman and farmers.
- CVD (cardiovascular disease)
The above enumerated common non-communicable diseases have been observed in
the community. The community has a high population of a pregnant woman that’s why it
is one of the common non-communicable diseases in the community and the reason that
iron deficiency is so common in pregnancy is that woman require about twice as much
iron as when they are not pregnant. During pregnancy, the blood volume increase by
about fifty percent, which can result in an iron deficiency. This often occurs in the second
trimester, as the blood volume increases and the baby begin to demand more iron.
As a respond, the Health Workers give medicines that help the mother to produce
more hemoglobin to prevent the mother to become anemic. And also as a prevention the
pregnant woman can eat food that is rich in iron like red meat; poultry; eggs; fruits such
as apricots, peaches, raisins and prunes; dark green leafy vegetables; beans and nuts such
as peanut butter, lentils, baked beans, red beans and almonds; some foods such as cereals,
pasta and bread are also fortified with iron.
Cardiovascular disease is one also of the common non-communicable disease that the
people in the community are suffering due to the inadvertency to their own health. Lack
of knowledge about the disease also increases the possibilities that they can acquire the
disease.
In this, the health workers must do their job by doing Health Education to the people
in the community; they must give information among the people who are at a high risk of
acquiring the said disease.
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7. Common communicable disease
- Acute respiratory infection
Acute respiratory infection is said to be the leading causes of morbidity in the
community. It is classified based on the site of infection as Acute Respiratory Infections (AURI)
and Acute Lower Respiratory Infections (ALRI). It is most common in childhood. With this the
health workers must give attention on how to lessen this disease. They should educate the parents
on how to prevent their children from acquiring this disease. They must do proper measures on
how to handle cases like this in order to lessen the morbidity rate of it.
Response of people in the community towards the services offered in the Health Center
According to the people we interviewed in the community about the services in the
Health Center is that, there is free check up but they are just giving medications and you are the
one who will buy medicine for it.And in terms of immunization they are giving it by group so
they are giving schedules on what day you will be back to immunized your infant.
-Vaccines are given in group because when you are immunizing you must consume the
one bottle so that the medicine will not be damage or contaminated by other bacteria.
Environmental sanitation
In the community of Alabel specifically in barangay Poblacion every week the garbage
collector collects the garbage’s in different houses. But you need first to apply in the treasurer
office and pay their so that your garbage will be collected. In some houses they are practicing
separating the biodegradable and non-biodegradable garbage and those non-biodegradable are
being collected and the biodegradable garbage are being put in the compost and use it as a
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8. fertilizers. But there are still people in the community who just burned their garbage even though
it’s a non-bio. Or biodegradable garbage. Sometimes they can’t collect every week because of
the lack of budget for gasolines were the people got curious of where the budget goes.
In this project they made, that every week they will be collecting the non-biodegradable
garbage help the community to lessen the garbage in the surroundings. But unfortunately, only
those who had applied in the treasurer office will be accommodated. That’s why for those who
can’t afford to pay, disposed their garbage everywhere. In some cases, the canal had become
their disposal sites that’s why when a heavy rain came the water cannot pass into the canal and it
overflow were it can lead to floods. Whenever there are floods, the microorganisms or bacteria
multiplied and being carried by the water and it can cause some diseases. So it’s better to prevent
it than to cure because you will be spending more money to buy medicines.
Housing
There are people who lived in far flung areas where the resources are not available and
accessible to them. Because of it, those people who lived their cant avail the said services. Some
of them also don’t have the strong foundation of a house. They usually lived in a small house
were their roof is made up of (pawod) were, when a heavy rain came it can’t prevent the entry of
water inside their houses and it can also be the causes of the entry of disease among them. They
don’t have usually toilets. Some of them make rivers as their toilets were they use it also for
bathing and a place for the animals to refresh.
That’s why some of the medical workers went to this area to do medical checkups and
teaching them about health education like basic hand washing, proper tooth brushing and doing
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9. feeding program. To ensure that the people who lived there will be free from disease or they will
be far to acquire it.
Peace and Order
Every barangay have a system called “LupongTagapamayapa” which settles disputes
between community members. This helps the people to easily settle the problem between them.
They are calling the attention of the people who have a problem towards his neighborhood,
friends or family to let them talk about it. If ever they cannot reconcile towards each other they
are making their own policy to settle it. However, there plenty of instances that the people avoid
the hassle of seeking formal mediation, they take the law in their own hand.
Recommendations:
At the end of the assessment we come up to these various problems we have observed in
our community. By that we came up with solutions that will somehow help in the development
of the community along with health.
More budget for the health care delivery system
Programs in medical missions focusing in the far flung areas.
More budgets for environmental sanitation
The government should accommodate needy people especially in the relocation of their
houses.
Health workers must efficiently teach the parents on how to prevent their children from
acquiring disease.
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