Heart Month: Saving One Heart At A Time

My own heart is overwhelmed as of this moment. When I was planning with my staff to go all the way in our celebration for the heart month this February, I was not feeling optimistic at first. There was little time and not enough resources to celebrate the Department of Health's Cardiovascular Diseases Prevention Month, better known as Heart Month. But I underestimated the creativity and enthusiasm of my staff, not to mention of the whole Local Government Unit. This morning, despite the imminent threat of heavy rains, we held our quarter-of-a-kilometer long caravan from Barangay Caningay to Barangay Haba and all the way to Barangay Banga. Everyone was out of the streets, with jackets and caps, to protect themselves from the cold weather. The Mayor, Celot Borromeo, was wearing his own red jacket, riding his private car giving out cut-out hearts with health tips for the bystanders. The roads of Candoni were awakened by barangay health workers, municipal councilors, nurses and even barangay officials, all clad in red shirts, with their cars and vehicles ladened with red balloons and red crepe papers. The ambulance was screaming loud, trying to call the attention of all Candonians. The town fiesta has just ended last Monday, but it seemed the party at Candoni continues.

I was praying for a good weather and God did provide us with one. Even during the opening program which followed after the caravan, the dark clouds remained just that, dark clouds. During the opening program, DOH rep Eleanor Manzano was present and commended our efforts. Even the Provincial Coordinator of Barangay Health Workers from the Provincial Health Office was present and told me personally that she was happy to see our RHU celebrating the Heart Month in such pomp. She even said that if she knew earlier about the caravan, she could have even joined us.

Of course, SB Dolores Tomol was present together with her other SB members, SB Dab Manzano and SB Charlie Wong. Most of the barangay captains were present and those who could not make it were represented by their Kagawads. Of course, Mayor Borromeo made a passionate plea for unity among Candonians during his speech. He even reiterated his promise of putting up the Infirmary. By the end of the year, Candoni will have its own hospital.

I had the privilege of declaring the Heart Month Celebrations open. The program culminated with a hataw exercise which was led by Ms. Jonah Malunes and two other nurses of the staff.

At the end of the program, I went around the BHWs and shook their hands and received their kisses of greeting. It's Valentine's Day and what a way to celebrate the Day of Hearts.

I will be uploading pictures of the opening program sometime this weekend. I have just upgraded my cellphone's memory card to 1G and bought me a new USB card reader so I can download the pictures from my cellphone to my pc and later upload them in the net. I even took some videos of my staff doing the hataw exercises.

To everyone around the world, Happy Day of Hearts.