Meet our... / Summer 2017

Meet our Area Coordinator Rhodora T. Mendoza

Dr. Rhodora Mendoza, Area Coordinator, Philippines

Dr. Ray Benson, the founder of Medical Ambassadors International (MAI), visited the Philippines in the 1980s and adopted it as one of the first five countries to be reached by MAI. At that time my late husband, Victor, and I began working with MAI in many parts of the country, doing church planting and using medical clinics/missions as entry points for evangelization. But we quickly realized clinics were not the best strategy. In terms of physical health, people were still sick with the same illnesses. With little economic development, they were as poor as before. Even their moral and spiritual lives were feeble. A clinic alone wasn’t working. The people were still dependent and lacked self-worth.

In the early 1990s, when Community Health Evangelism (CHE) was introduced to us and shared in Filipino communities by the CHE team, we began to see big changes in the lives of people. They realized they could escape poverty, but they learned they must take the initiative. The role of the CHE team in the field was one of mentors and encouragers—not doing the work for them.

In April 2009 my beloved husband, who had faithfully served the people of the Philippines, went home to be with his Savior. During this personally difficult time, I was called upon to take over the work we had started together. Gratefully, we still see God’s hand working in the lives of people all over the Philippines as a result of the CHE program. We are working in seven major CHE areas in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, not counting our partner organizations, churches, and other ministries doing CHE after being trained by us or by other training organizations.

Almost all members of the training teams have been with us since we started the ministry. Of the 13 active members, only one is new. They have worked and toiled faithfully for almost 30 years now. These teams are working in 44 communities, 19 of which are autonomous, and serving 17,225 households. There are 251 active committee members and 364 CHE volunteers.

The first major partnership we had was our work with the national government through their effort to eradicate tuberculosis, especially among the poor who could not afford the needed treatment. The national program required a strict implementation of a treatment regimen that is community-based. To ensure success, a health worker is assigned a number of households to visit, monitoring treatment by personally seeing the patient is taking his medication religiously. This is where our CHE volunteers came in, checking on their neighbors during house-to-house visits and monitoring their progress. Compared to their counterparts in other groups implementing the same program (minus CHE), ours proved to be more effective due to our wholistic approach.

We were also given the privilege of conducting a CHE Internship Program which started in 2002, now totaling 180 participants from 36 countries. The biggest number of individuals have come from the U.S. followed by Africa and Korea.

Another government partnership is our linkage with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), which has given us the authority to train our out-of-school youth with life and livelihood skills. Again, we integrated CHE into the training curriculum to make the training wholistic. The students then become CHE volunteers. We are working to make it a nationwide effort.

The biggest problem our country is currently facing, and for a number of years now, is drug addiction, which corrupts every facet of man and society. Our challenge is how to help curb, if not eradicate, this terrible scourge on mankind. The question is, “What role can CHE play in this scenario?” We covet your prayers as we face this overwhelming difficulty with God’s wisdom and intervention.

 

Country: Philippines
Active in CHE since: 1990s
Active Trainers: 13
Committee Members: 251
Active CHE volunteers: 364
CHE Communities: 44
Households Served: 17,225

 

Philippine CHE Internship:
Active Since: 2002
Participants: 180
Countries Represented: 36

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