Health

Sexual Reproductive Health Program

In the conservative communities where we work, teenage pregnancy, miscarriages, and sexually transmitted infections cause many girls to drop out of school.

IIRR has designed a sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) program to address problems of sexuality and reproduction among girls. Through this program, girls are organized into clubs to protect themselves from unsafe sex, sexual and gender-based violence, and to know and defend their rights in and out of school. They are empowered with knowledge about sexual and reproductive health and encouraged to impart what they learn to fellow students who are not club

These activities are bringing about a paradigm shift in the way society views and values the girl child. Girls are
sensitized on their right to education and encouraged to claim that right.

Importantly, they will help their mothers to learn about contraceptives and other SRH services.

Scaling Up Nutrition-sensitive Program

Malnutrition remains a public health problem across the globe. In the Philippines, in 2008, approximately 31,000 deaths among children below five years old were related to undernutrition. (Lebanan et al., 2016).

IIRR has scaled its Integrated School Nutrition Model and currently supports the Philippine national government in to mainstream nutrition-sensitive program (NSP) by integrating NSP into the national and local government initiatives. Aligning with countrywide development plans and targets on nutrition is also advocated. IIRR supports its partners to ensure improved access to nutritious foods on-farm, increased availability and lower prices of diverse nutritious foods in markets, improved food safety, and income which can be spent on more diverse nutritious food if such food is available, affordable, and convenient. Care practices through empowerment of women (particularly if they can control income, their time, and labor) and through incorporating behavior change communication. Health and sanitation environments through management practices that protect natural resources (water in particular) and safeguard against health risks introduced by agricultural production (e.g. livestock, standing water, agrochemicals).