PDRF, DOH partner in Covid-19, vaccine info drive

MANILA – The Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) and the Department of Health (DOH), along with various private groups, will actively promote the “Ingat Angat” campaign aimed at promoting accurate information about the pandemic and vaccines while pushing for economic recovery.

Through the “Kalinga para sa Kalusugan ng Komunidad” (Project K3), the PDRF commits to providing a localized communication approach, amplifying existing messages, and innovatively supporting the national communication campaigns.

Project K3 is an initiative of the PDRF and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Aid Program that targets to strengthen the health care capacities of local government units (LGUs), health care institutions, and other local communities nationwide to respond to the public health crisis and other emerging needs amid the pandemic.

Among the activities planned are the training of some 10,000 local health care system stakeholders and the distribution of 5,000 sets of personal protective equipment to select health care facilities.

It also aims to facilitate risk communications and community education through the distribution of localized information, education, and communication (IEC) materials.

Margot Torres of McDonald’s Philippines cited the need to develop a grassroots approach to reach out to communities at the barangay level, particularly those sectors that are wary of getting vaccinated.

“I think you’re targeting the right people and having a grassroots campaign is important. That’s a gap that you’re able to see,” Torres said during a recent virtual meeting among Project K3 participants.

DOH Director Beverly Ho expressed her support for the PDRF’s communication goals “to go from information awareness to behavioral change and eventually paradigm-shifting.”

“What we want to do in health promotion, at least, from the health sector point of view, is to go beyond IEC, because before, when people think about our office, they think about all the printouts, the tarps, etc. But the reality is we actually use the healthy people, healthy places framework,” Ho said. “The norm, the culture has to be enabling of the action that we want people to take.”

Through the PDRF’s private sector network and massive on-ground partnering within communities, Project K3 is eyed to amplify the reach of existing communication material by both the DOH and the “Ingat Angat” campaign.

The PDRF’s online digital learning platform – iADAPT or the Innovations Academy for Disaster Awareness, Preparedness, and Training – will also be used to expand Project K3’s objectives in capacity building.