14,000+ urban poor in Baguio City receive free health care
As a Christmas gift to the urban poor of Baguio, a non-government organization offered free medical and dental services to a total of 14,250 residents from 15 districts.
“We all know that not everyone can afford to acquire medical services, so we decided to sponsor them with our non-government organization.”
“This is one of our ways to help our communities’ indigents,” said retired police general Benjamin Magalong of MediKalinga.
Magalong explains that MediKalinga started offering their services on November 19, and their last mission is set on January 16. The free services they offer include:
- Dental check-ups, tooth extraction and free dentures
- Eyeglasses and minor eye surgery
- Other minor medical surgeries
- Circumcision
- Medicines for children and adults
- Free haircuts and massage therapy
The group also has a feeding program that coincides with all the above services.
Beneficiaries
As of January 4, they already serviced 15 out of the 20 districts of Baguio. Each district consists of around five to seven barangays, with a total of 128 for the entire city. The schedules and locations of the other missions are below:
- January 7, Bakakeng Central Covered Court – District 14: Brgys. Bakakeng Central, Bakakeng Norte/Sur, Dontogan, SLU-SVP, Santo Tomas Proper, and Santo Tomas School Area
- January 8, Guisad Surong Barangay Hall – District 7: Brgys. Guisad Central, Cresencia Village, Guisad Surong, Lower Magsaysay, Padre Burgos, Padre Zamora, Pinsao Pilot Project, and Santo Niño Compound
- January 9, Aguinaldo Park Basketball Court – District 10: Brgys. Harrison-Carantes, Lower General Luna, Malcolm Square, Salud Mitra, Session Road, and Upper General Luna.
- January 14 – Upper Irisan
- January 15 – Lower Irisan
- January 16 – District 16: Brgys. Middle Quezon Hill, Pinsao Proper, Quezon Hill Proper, Upper Quezon Hill and Victoria Village.
Magalong explained that their group accommodates between 700 to 800 patients from each district, and that they limit the giving away of dentures and patient-specific eyeglasses to 100 and 300 respectively, per mission.
He adds that they only originally planned to conduct three missions. However, with the positive reception from the citizens, they decided to push for more schedules for their outreach program. He assures that this will be a continuing effort to help the urban poor in Baguio City.
Retired Police General Benjamin Magalong was the former head of the national government’s investigative body which was formed to investigate the massacre of 44 Special Action Force troopers in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in January 2015.
