Filipino community workers cope to support women amid pandemic

It has been ten days since the government imposed an “enhanced community quarantine,” but Likhaan clinics continue operating to serve women, mostly in poor communities.

Aside from maternal and family planning, the clinics also provide reproductive health services for adolescents and counseling for victims of violence against women.

Lilibeth Armayan, a community mobilizer at Likhaan, said that since the lockdown, most of their clients had been unable to come to the clinic.

Since the enhanced community quarantine on March 16, the center has scaled down its workforce to help in “flattening the curve” of the new coronavirus. 

Volunteers distribute leaflets about the disease and the various ways to prevent its spread in poor urban communities.

“We’re giving away condoms while we’re at it,” said Armayan.