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Glenn Benablo
Community Nurse Trainer, Mongolia
When was the last time you went see a puppet show to find out about how to treat your common ailments? The idea may seem unusual, but in Mongolia this novel approach to informing people about how to look after their health is significantly reducing the pressure on the country’s doctors and nurses.
Glenn Benablo is a VSO volunteer working at Darkhan Health Department and he is currently supporting groups of Mongolian volunteers who work with communities around the Darkhan area. Like many poor countries Mongolia suffers from insufficient equipment, a lack of qualified personnel and huge discrepancies in health care availability between rural and urban areas. Aggravating this is the tendency for Mongolians to bypass their local GP and head straight to hospital. Those that do attempt to use their local clinics often find that nurses are out visiting patients who are too sick to travel.
National volunteering is a familiar concept in Mongolia and The Health District did already have a number of volunteers registered, but they were not training them so consequently the volunteers were ineffective and received little respect from the communities.
As a community nurse trainer Glenn is working to improve the status of these volunteers and the service they offer. The first step was to rename the volunteers Family Clinic Health Workers, provide them with a uniform, and train them to undertake basic tasks such as routine health checks and blood pressure tests.
One of their most important roles is to raise awareness of how people can take better care of themselves to prevent illness. To help this, Glenn organised a study tour to the Philippines, where staff from the Health Department and the Family Clinic Health Workers saw how community volunteers successfully work in his home country and how puppetry can be used to communicate sensitive health care lessons. On their return to Mongolia the volunteers created a puppet show and video about the need for vaccinations.
All of this happened within a year of Glenn arriving in volunteer. As a result of this support for national volunteering and the funded tour, the Director of the Health Department has provided an allowance of $5 a month for the Family Clinic Health Workers and doctors and nurses have reported that they are able to spend more time treating people in the clinics.
VSO Bahaginan will be hosting the staging of Repertory Philippines' CINDERELLA KIDZ at Onstage 1, Greenbelt 1, Makati on November 30, 2007, 1:30 p.m.
This is a list of skills most needed currently by the overseas employers we work with. We’re recruiting professionals with these skills to start placements in the next six months. If you’re qualified and experienced in a profession listed below, we want to hear from you.
- Doctors (GP, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine/ Ob-Gyne/ Surgery/Pediatrics) more
- Nurses / Midwives more
- IT teacher / trainers
- Physical therapists / Occupational therapists
- Fundraisers
- Primary teachers
- Agriculturists with extension/livelihood experience
- Irrigation engineer
- Special Needs teacher with module development experience
- Small business advisers
- Research economist
For further information and inquiries, visit www.vsobahaginan.org.ph, email us at bahaginan@vsoint.org or call 3746450 to 52 loc 21. Or write to us: The Director, VSO BAHAGINAN Unit 505 Pacific Corporate Center, 131 West Ave., Quezon City 1105.
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