Supporting Overseas Filipinos

Jonathan Monis, Australia Awards Scholarship 2018, Master of Project Management, University of Sydney, Supervising Health Program Officer - Department of Health (DOH)

When Australia Awards alumnus Jonathan Monis, a senior project officer of the Department of Health (DOH), learned that he will be deployed to the COVID-19 Emergency Operations Center, he immediately said yes to the opportunity to serve his fellow Filipinos. He has been tasked to coordinate between the DOH and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on the surveillance of Overseas Filipinos (OFs). "There is a need to see the overall picture of our OFs, as they comprise tenth of our population," he said. Current data shows the need for greater support to overseas Filipinos and for making sure they go home safely while reducing the transmission of COVID-19.  Jonathan was also part of the team that monitors the situation of foreign nationals and foreign visitors with recent travel history in the Philippines.

As part of the DOH, the organisation that leads the country's pandemic response, Jonathan has seen firsthand sacrifices in different forms – from top-level management down to rank and file employees. He believes that these sacrifices keep the organisation's system going amid the crisis.

Read his story here

Safeguarding mental health during a crisis

Gabriel Lizada, Australia Awards Scholarship 2017, Master of Counselling, Monash University, Assistant Professor - Ateneo de Davao University

Australia Awards alumnus Gabriel Lizada's passion about mental health awareness started while he was still studying in Australia. His initiative, Mindfulness Mondays, is a 4-week program he launched last April wherein he gave free online 30-minute mindfulness sessions. Each session targeted different emotions and cognitions that an individual might feel during this pandemic. He also delivered an online talk on Happiness and Positive Psychology sponsored by the Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP) last June. In his speech, he focused on how positivity is not the only option during a crisis and instead of seeking happiness, individuals should try to find different ways to flourish to help cope ' 'one's well-being. The live session was participated by more than 700 attendees and currently has 20,000 views on Facebook. Aside from these, he also gave mental health and well-being talks to institutions and schools to help them cope with the pandemic.

 "As we all know, by experience and through stories, this COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we think, feel, and act in our daily lives. This pandemic has put a spotlight on the importance of safeguarding ' 'one's mental health and the well-being of others. With this insight, I have decided to put my education and training into good use. I believe that if I can help, even just one person, during this COVID pandemic, then I would say that my initiatives were a success.

When this pandemic is over, I hope that we, as a country, will begin to prioritise mental health in the same way we put a premium on physical health. I hope that we understand that both mental health and physical health are not two separate entities, but rather, two facets of well-being that should be prioritised simultaneously."

Read his story here

Doing the Right Thing

Dr. Jose Rafael Marfori, Australia Awards Scholarship 2015, Master of Public Health, University of Melbourne

Australia Awards alumnus Dr Jose Rafael "Raffy" Marfori's role radically changed with the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Philippines. As Special Assistant to the Director for Flagship Projects of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), Raffy's role went from handling priority non-routine initiatives to handling multiple priority work to respond to the COVID-19 crisis while PGH transformed into a war zone as the country's COVID-19 referral centre.

Since March 2020, Raffy has been working behind the scenes in and outside the walls of the hospital. Taking inspiration from exemplary programs in Melbourne, he led the PGH Bike Program, which assigns bicycles to PGH health workers who need an alternative mode of transportation during the community quarantine. He also organised shuttle services for them and provided strategic recommendations to the Department of Health (DOH) in producing much-needed personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontliners. Raffy also worked on two important frameworks, which are now being used as key tools in the Philippines’ fight against COVID-19: a blueprint for mass testing of COVID-19 in the Philippines, which became the overall framework of the Department of Health (DOH); and a framework for an innovative modular type of benefit package to accommodate the nuances of COVID-19 care, in collaboration with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth). As the Philippines welcomes a new normal, Raffy works with the PGH, University of the Philippines, PhilHealth and WHO on a proposal for PGH to serve as demonstrator and innovator of what health care could look like when the country transitions from a COVID-19 crisis to a COVID-19-aware society.

Like a modern-day warrior, Raffy has been tackling each job with all that he has, taking inspiration from his passion to help address the huge gaps in the Philippine health systems. But perhaps his most significant contribution to the COVID-19 war yet, was providing the much-needed inspiration for his leader, PGH Director Dr Gerardo "Gap" Legaspi, during a crucial time of decision-making: "He asked what I thought about the call of the Department of Health (DOH) and of private hospitals to turn our hospital into a COVID-19 Referral Center. Knowing he would make the right decision regardless, and aware that he was facing near-unanimous opposition for it, I merely boiled it down for him to a question of, 'Is it the right thing to do?' His conviction must be absolute, I replied, to outlast the prevailing sentiments of fear, which were to be expected. The next day his letter to the PGH community made the news, proclaiming in its last line, 'Let us do this because deep in our hearts - devoid of fear and anger - it is the right thing to do.'" Since then the PGH has been at the forefront of the Philippines' war against COVID-19.

Read his story here