Outreach
The MSC Community Development Committee creates avenues for the students to immerse itself with the community and collaborate and establish new networks with organizations in and outside the university. For the past years, the committee had only limited itself in recurrent projects such as local biannual blood drives, annual medical missions and Christmas outreach programs. It was about time that we challenge these traditions and go beyond.
The UST Medicine Student Council was awarded the Gabriela Silang Award by the Department of Health under the Philippine Blood Service Program on the A.Y. 2018-2019. This was given in recognition of the blood drive efforts of the MSC community development committee to organize blood-letting projects and collect a certain number of blood bags to merit the award.
At the same year, the UST Medicine Student Council was also awarded the Blood Drive Bronze Award by the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges – Student Network under the National Blood Drive Campaign Committee.
Blood Drives
A.Y. 2018-2019; A.Y. 2019-2020
SANDUGUAN
One of the committee’s goals was to establish a blood-letting project every 3 months.
The first blood drive was scheduled last September 2018 in celebration of the Feast Day of St. Comas and Damian and was held at the UST Medicine Museum of St. Martin de Porres Building.
The Philippine Philippine Blood Center has been partnering with the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery for several blood donation drives. Students, staff, and faculty alike come together in order to help save lives one dop at a time.
Community Service
A.Y. 2018-2019
KinaBOOKasan
This project was under the UST FMS Community Development Office, headed by Dr. Tricia Bautista from the Family, Community and Preventive Medicine Department. KinaBOOKasan was conducted twice a month by an FMS student organization or a group of clinical clerks.
The Student Council headed the project for the month of February, and was held at San Lazaro Clinic and at Kapitbahayan Elementary School, Dagat-dagatan, Navotas City. There were literacy programs, catechism programs, nutrition-feeding programs, and medical programs prepared for the day. Student volunteers from FMS were recruited from 1st to 4th year to participate in the event by facilitating the different programs. In the literacy and catechism program, student volunteers prepared stories which were presented through role plays, games, and art and crafts. The nutrition-feeding program focused on educating the kids on the Pingang Pinoy concept which emphasized the importance of eating a complete meal rich in go, grow and glow foods. To close the event, the students prepared a meal for the kids.
RELIEF OPS
The committee had initiated efforts to call for donations for those affected by calamities such as typhoons, earthquakes and others. This was a year-long project and was most active when there were communities greatly affected by calamities. A call for donations in the forms of cash, nonperishable food, clothes and toiletries were collected. Donations were received at the MSC Office or at drop off locations along Dapitan, Lacson, Espana and P. Noval street. This was in coordination with Akbayanihan Foundation to receive our collected donations for delivery and redistribution to the affected communities.
Tulong Tomasino Relief and Cash Donation Campaign
The UST Simbahayan Community Development Office had also initiated a donation drive for typhoon struck victims. All local student councils were tasked to organize a donative drive in their respective colleges and faculties. Each large box contained food items, medicine, hygiene kit and other emergency items.
Donation to Lumad Bakwit School
A Lumad community from Lumad Bakwit School visited the university under the UST Simbahayan Office. At that time, awareness campaigns were initiated because Lumads were experiencing internal displacement, rendering them as internal refugees due to intensified militarization and mining activities in their ancestral lands in Mindanao. The committee initiated a call to the entire FMS community for cash donations to the Lumad communities. The entire monetary collection was accounted and forwarded to the UST Simbahayan Community Development Office to directly give the amount to the Lumad community.
A.Y. 2020-2021
TANGLAWAN: A Call for Donations for the Victims of Typhoon Ulysses
Just recently, the Student Council initiation a donation drive for both both monetary and in-kind goods for the benefit of those who are greatly affected by typhoon Ulysses in Region II. Overwhelming support was given by the entire medical community in UST from several departments in the USTH and the medical school, raising over PHP 200,000 in a span of a week.
For the first phase of the project, monetary donations were coursed through partner organizations to aid the communities up north. Donations in-kind were coordinated with Mr. Karl dela Cruz, an FMS student, and the 5th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army to be brought up to Cagayan and Isabela.
With the Second phase, the student council coordinated with different medical schools in Northern Luzon, such as UP Cagayan, SPUP, and CSU, through the APMC, to help fund the necessities to help rehabilitate the communities in Region II.
A.Y. 2018-2019
MEDICAL-SURGICAL MISSIONS
UST MSC Medical Mission 2018
The committee organized its first medical mission of its term. We collaborated with the Task Force on Urban Conscientization (TFUC), a religious group that organizes monthly missions to rural areas. The medical mission was held at Tangos, Navotas City last September 1, 2018. Several student and professional volunteers were mobilized to assist in medical consultations.
UST MSC Medical and Tuli Mission 2019
The committee organized its second medical mission of its term in collaboration again with the TFUC for a circumcision mission held at Pandi, Bulacan last April 2019 with FMS faculty, Dr. Ma. Margarita Gellaco, to come and supervise. This paved a way for the committee to procure the council’s first and very own sets of basic surgical tool kit. We again mobilized a call for student volunteers to assist in medical
consultations and perform circumcision. Those medical students knowledgeable and skilled in circumcision were tasked in the circumcision area. To foster learning, we also formulated a scheme where those who wants to learn circumcision shadowed those who are skilled.
A.Y. 2018-2019
The Christmas season is always merry in the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. An annual celebration with our chosen community has been part of the mission of the community development committee for quite some time now.
On Christmas 2018, it was done for the orphans at Hospicio de San Jose, Ermita, Manila The committee coordinated with FMS faculty Dr. Ida Lim for this Christmas celebration, which also happened to be Dr. Lim’s birthday celebration.
It was a fun filled celebration with dance performances, Christmas caroling, games and food. Boxes of donated goods were distributed to the kids which included vitamins, food, toiletries and toys. Student volunteers wore Christmas inspired clothes and accessories.
A.Y. 2019-2020
PROJECT: BRAVE KIDS
Come Christmas 2019, the committee partnered with the Noche Buena Project to bring joy to these brave kids battling cancer at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center. There was a call for student volunteers for the day, helping out with giving out toys, gifts, food, and also raffles for the parents. Live performances by the students were also done for the children, with some singing, dancing, and sharing stories. The goal of the day was to being about smiles on everyone’s faces and giving them a christmas they wouldn’t forget.
