In search of identity: the women IPs
By Rubelyn Yap

Cagayan de Oro City (WFS) -Two women from two indigenous tribes are searching for their identity after undergoing the trainer's training on Indigenous Peoples Issues on Ancestral Claims and the Women's Role. Conducted by the Institute of Women Studies of St. Scholastica's College here in Cagayan de Oro City the three-week training addresses the issues on women as a whole not only as IPs to bring out a sense of feminist leadership among the participants.

Nanay Natty (Mother Natty), a Mamanwa is determined to study her tribe and get the tradition back even it takes years

Agnes wants to liberate the women in her tribe and claim equality between men and women. Though it's a tough job to do but she vowed that she will return to Sulu and will try to do what she can for her people who she said were victims of "culture".

Both women are keeping their aspirations of cultural change in their respective community burning and are determined to change the life they used to live.

WFS Ref: Min600
1,348 words

Philippines: The surfing doctor
By Rubelyn Yap

General Luna, Siargao Island (WFS)--Dr. Aida Zerline J. Alcid, a native of Davao city, is not your ordinary doctor. Dr. Ida to her patients and friends, she left the glamorous life of a beauty queen and ramp model, to serve as municipal doctor of General Luna in Siargao Island in the province of Surigao del Norte. Also called the surfing doctor, she has been attending to both local and foreign surfers and guests to the island.

Right after taking her oath as a medical doctor in 2002, she applied for the Doctors to the Barrios-Leaders for Health Program (DTTB-LHP) in the hope that she would be of help to the community especially in far flung areas of the country.

Despite the mass migration of her fellow doctors, she has remained committed to her oath and has remained a barrio doctor to the 13,000 inhabitants of Gen. Luna for the last four years.

She stayed because this small town showed her that it is possible to change how people think, feel and behave about health and life.

What is rewarding in the job is when her patients thank her for what she has done for them, "The thank you's are genuine and that is something for me."

WFS Ref: Min577
1,850 words

Two Faces of Zamboanga PWAs
By Ederlinda M. Fernandez

Zamboanga City (WFS) - Ligaya and Rosie are two Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) from Zamboanga City who have been terminated from their jobs and deported from a South African country when they were found positive with AIDS.

At the prime of their lives, Ligaya and Rosie now face grim prospects of impending death from the dreaded disease; joblessness, poverty and stigmatization even by their own families. But while Ligaya has openly acknowledged her ailment, Rosie chose to keep her condition to herself and denies medication.

Ligaya and Rosie's stories illustrate the urgency of the problem and the need to address the issues of social and economic rights (especially the right to health-care), gender equality and women's human rights, as well as men's responsibilities and rights, of persons with AIDS.

WFS Ref:Min568
2,087 words

Philippines: In the Margins: Young Bagobo girls face a bleak future
By Radzini Oledan

Davao City (WFS) -With her kid in tow, 15 year old Saila Samihon goes about her usual round of domestic chores - tending crops, fetching water and looking after the needs of her husband and her own family.

In Sitio Kabagaayan, Barangay Sibulan in Davao City, low levels of literacy, lack of access to services and the impoverished situation continue to put young women like Saila in the margins. High maternal and infant mortality rate, malnutrition, and unmet needs in reproductive health services abound. The lack of programmes and interventions in far-flung areas like Sitio Kabagaayan have even made children and youth easy prey to traffickers.

"Maybe they are tired going to our place because it is just too far," Bai Gina said. "But they should realize that it is far-flung areas such as this that need the most help."

WFS Ref:WV589
1,186 Words