Got this from jayson through facebook. In some ways I can no longer be impartial about this issue primarily because whenever emotions are involved the mind almost always takes a backseat. I was bale to see the interview of one of the children, of one of the doctors who were jailed. The words were something like “Para na nga sa amin , kukunin pa para itulong sa ibang tao..” said in a tone equal parts admiration and hurt. Ewan , hope more people are as selfless as those doctors , rebels or not.
Barefoot doctors
MANILA, Philippines—The rain on a health workers’ training workshop in Morong, Rizal, and the arrest of 43 health professionals and workers continue to be front-page news.
The other night on the TV program “Crossroads,” Lt. Col. Noel Detoyato, spokesperson of the Armed Forces’ 2nd Infantry Division, noted that the workshop participants generally had low educational attainment, and cited this as one reason why they were suspected as subversives. Detoyato even enumerated the participants’ educational profile: 5 had elementary education, 4 were elementary graduates, 7 had high school education, 12 were high school graduates, 5 had college education and 4 were college graduates. He then mentioned that one of the participants had only finished first grade, and that this person was wanted for murder.
The colonel’s revelations reflect society’s prejudice against people who have had little formal education. “Uneducated” means ignorant, with connotations of the criminal and the subversive. Moreover, in this case of the health workers, there is the insinuation that the “uneducated’ (read the poor) couldn’t become health workers.
Yet for nearly half a century now, there has been a quiet global revolution going on, where people with minimal education have become excellent community health workers. In the Philippines, such training dates back to the early 1970s, when Filipino health professionals put up community-based health programs (CBHPs) with community health worker (CW) training as its centerpiece.
The Filipino CBHPs drew inspiration from China’s health care system, one which built upwards from the communes and villages. A hallmark of the Chinese system was the training of barefoot doctors, so-called because many had minimal formal education. Yet, with training of six months to a year the barefoot doctors could handle many of the most important health needs in their villages. Some eventually went on to medical school. One of them, Chen Zhu, rose through the ranks to become minister of health.
via Barefoot doctors – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.