The first-ever family planning mobile clinic in the country has officially launched. True to its social mission to ensure that no one is left behind when it comes to providing reproductive health choices, DKT Philippines Foundation unveiled the Service Outreach and Distribution Extension Program (SODEX) Mobile Clinic in Binangonan, Rizal on May 8, 2024.
“Today marks an important moment in a public-private partnership. This mobile clinic, which is one of hopefully many to come, offers free contraceptive services based on the choice of the woman and her partner,” said Denise van Dijk, Chair of the Board of DKT Philippines Foundation, a charitable non-profit organization promoting family planning and sexually transmitted diseases prevention.
The SODEX Mobile Clinic will bring free contraceptive products (pills, condoms, injectables, and intrauterine devices or IUD) and services (including non-scalpel vasectomy or NSV and bilateral tubal ligation or BTL that uses local anesthesia) to far-flung areas across the country. Onboard the ambulatory clinic are a trained physician/ surgeon, family planning-trained nurse and midwife, a circulating staff, and a driver. The group will also conduct counselling and final screening in preparation for procedures.
After the launch in Binangonan, the mobile clinic will travel to about 30 locations across Central Luzon, North Luzon, Cordillera, MIMAROPA (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan), and CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) for the rest of the year. The clinic will stay in an area for a day or two and operate from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. It will travel to other communities in the Visayas and Mindanao regions next year.
“This ensures that we protect the right of more single women and their partners to choose the life and plan the family that they want, when they want it. To us, this is the biggest service we could give to the people of the Philippines. We thank all the partners in the field who have worked tirelessly over the last decades on awareness campaigns and on making family planning more normalized in the country,” van Dijk said.
DKT Philippines Foundation started offering affordable and accessible reproductive health products and services 30 years ago. The organization was the first to introduce affordable condoms from the private sector in the country (Trust condoms).
According to research, one in every two contraceptive users in the Philippines uses one of DKT or Trust products.
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