IN just a little over a decade, BDO Foundation has successfully rehabilitated 140 rural health units (RHUs) all over the Philippines as part of efforts to help improve the health and well-being of Filipinos in underserved communities.

In the past few months alone, the corporate social responsibility arm of BDO Unibank rehabilitated four health facilities in Bohol: Sikatuna Rural Health Unit, Talibon Municipal Health Center, Sagbayan Municipal Health Unit and Jagna Rural Health Unit I.

In Surigao del Norte, the foundation renovated Lipata Barangay Health Center, Rural Health Unit — Del Carmen and Santa Monica Rural Health Unit.

It also refurbished Pinili - Mothering Center in Ilocos Norte and Batad Primary Care Facility in Iloilo.

BDO Foundation’s initiative in the provinces benefits more than 198,000 people. With each renovated RHU, the foundation contributes to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 to ensure healthy lives and promote the well-being of all people of all ages.

Through its ongoing rehabilitation program, which started in 2012, the foundation helps improve the health care delivery system in the country, one of the goals under the Philippine health agenda.

“Typhoon ‘Ursula’ and Typhoon ‘Agaton’ damaged our facility and affected our ability to serve our constituents,” Batad Municipal Health Officer Dr. Maria Rhesyl De La Rosa remembered. “By renovating our RHU, you enabled us to continue providing free health and nutrition services to our community, particularly the patients who are most in need.”

For Jagna Municipal Health Officer Dr. Shaira Lyn Cagulada, one of the most significant benefits of the project is the ability to accommodate and screen more patients. With the improved layout and interiors of their RHU, Dr. Cagulada plans to “shift from the traditional writing of patients’ records to electronic medical records.”