Cebu Archdiocese relaunches Caritas health programs

The Commission on Service Health Center of the Cebu Caritas Inc. will now open their clinic from Monday to Saturday. | Futch Anthony Inso

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Archdiocese of Cebu Commission on Service Health Center relaunches the health programs under the Cebu Caritas Inc. (CCI) today, December 12, 2019.

Rev. Fr. Alex Cola Jr., chairman on the Commission on Services and president of CCI, told reporters that they relaunched the program because they had restructured their services in order to widen their scope, especially to the poor families who needed medical attention.

If before, their clinic is only open twice a week, now the clinic will be open from Monday to Saturday.

Among the services that their clinic is offering are medical and dental check-up with free medicines; HIV/AIDS awareness seminar, screening and testing; tuberculosis and hepatitis C testing and assistance.

They also give transportation assistance to families, who need to go back to their provinces and are experiencing financial problems.

“Mao na nga gi-relaunch nato siya to let the public know nga nagtabang ta sa mga igsuon nga nanginahanglan,” Cola said.

(That is why we relaunched it to let the public know that we continueto help our brothers in need.)

Several doctors are also volunteering to render their services to their clinic in order to assist patients.

Rev. Fr. Vicente Cancino Jr., executive secretary on the Episcopal Commission on Health Care from the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), also said that the relaunching of the CCI would show the church’s concern to the needs of poor families.

He also added that they would also be coordinating with the government, where the Department of Health (DOH) would also be supplying free medicines to their clinic./dbs