News Bits

Partners and stakeholders from government agencies, the private sector, and civil society pledged their commitment to strengthen Pandemic Preparedness, Prevention, and Response (PPPR) efforts and to meaningfully engage communities throughout these initiatives.

Representatives from the Office of Civil Defense, Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the health offices of Quezon City, Manila, and Pasig reaffirmed their support. Joining them were the University of the Philippines National Institutes of Health, PhilHealth, Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), UNAIDS, Philippine Red Cross, Cullion Foundation, and Doctors Without Borders. The COPPER Coalition and PASTB also pledged their dedication to advancing PPPR.

The COPPER Coalition Philippines, composed of 25 community and civil society organizations engaged in Pandemic Preparedness, Prevention, and Response (PPPR), raised their calls yesterday.

The COPPER Coalition urged for greater community engagement in building resilient health systems and ensuring sustainable, comprehensive, accessible, and high-quality healthcare at all times.

They highlighted the importance of protecting communities during pandemics by supporting livelihoods, establishing pandemic-proof learning systems, and preventing gender-based violence. The coalition also stressed the need for accurate and reliable information to effectively combat pandemics.

ACHIEVE is the country implementer of the COPPER CE or the Community Engagement and Pandemic Preparedness and Response Project, an eighteen-month initiative funded by the Apcaso with ACT!AP.

Community and civil society organizations working on HIV and TB, public transport groups, women’s groups, Indigenous peoples, and youth organizations built their peer education skills for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (PPPR) through a workshop organized by ACHIEVE in partnership with Apcaso under the COPPER Project.

The communities play a critical role in responding to health emergencies by ensuring that pandemic interventions are anchored on health equity, human rights, and gender equality. Through this workshop, the participants learned about basic concepts of PPPR that they can share to their respective communities through peer education. The workshop was conducted in 2 batches on December 12-15, 2024.

This #InternationalHumanRightsDay, ACHIEVE affirms its commitment to uphold and protect all human rights, especially those vulnerable and marginalized such as communities affected and at risk of HIV and TB. 

We will continue to fight stigma, discrimination, and other human rights-related barriers that exacerbate the spread of HIV and TB and block access of key populations to prevention, treatment, and care services.

ACHIEVE, with the support of STOP TB Partnership under the Challenge Facility for Civil Society Round 12 Project, conducted a Validation and Action Planning Workshop for the TB Stigma Assessment with National Government Agencies, Civil Society Organizations, and the PASTB Network.

The results of the study were presented to gather feedback from stakeholders. The TB Stigma Assessment revealed that:

1. 39.2% of people with TB (PWTB) who participated in the study have experienced TB-related stigma;
2. 29.6% of household members of PWTB have experienced stigma;
3. 83.5% of respondents declared that they know someone who has had TB; and
4. 22.3% of healthcare workers have experienced TB-related stigma

Building on the results, stakeholders gave recommendations for program and service provision, treatment support, education and awareness raising, and policy and structural support.

In celebration of World AIDS Day, ACHIEVE joined the ceremonial signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Quezon City Local Government Unit and its Service Delivery Network (SDN) partners for PLHIV. 

With ACHIEVE as a member of the network, this partnership will further strengthen HIV education, awareness, testing, and treatment across Quezon City.

On World AIDS Day, ACHIEVE calls on the government and stakeholders to increase investments in policies, programs, and services that will uphold and protect the rights of everyone living with, at risk for, or affected by HIV, especially the marginalized. With the communities at the lead, protecting human rights can get us closer to ending AIDS by 2030. 

Rep. Cendaña said that the Philippines is still at 61-67-39 in achieving the 95-95-95 targets in ending AIDS. He proposed urgent measures, focusing on empowering the youth with evidence-based information and access to prevention such as PrEp, PEP, self-testing, and anti-retroviral treatment.