It was a very welcome news that our province of La Union was a recipient of a Php 650,000,000.00 grant from the European Community for the construction of the newest and most modern government hospital in the entire Philippines. And giving us the details about this project is no less than our very own PP Andy Astom, who was appointed hospital chief to run the new Provincial Hospital.
     Aside from his talk about the hospital, he also gave us an idea on how we can better help the poor, not just thru the usual medical missions, but by providing health care insurance to the poorest of the poor, thus also helping out our government hospitals with the much needed funds to provide better health care.
     Last Wednesday, we had our first Municipal wide Vitamin A Supplementation project for all the Public Elementary Schools of Balaoan. Around 1,458 grade on pupils were given Vitamin A. This Wednesday, we will be implementing Vitamin A for Sudipen, Bangar, and Luna or approximately 2,500 grade I pupils from all public schools will be administered. Come February, we will have Santo Tomas and Burgos as the next municipalities to be administered Vitamin A.

     We also had an initial discussion with the Provincial Health Office regarding the implementation of Polio vaccine starting February 2 to February 8 and again on March. It was suggested that they (PHO) conduct a meeting with all Rotary Clubs in La Union including other NGOs. This way they can tap the resources of all NGOs in the province and hopefully make good in administering vaccine against polio. We will make further announcements on how our club can help once we have ironed out plans with the Provincial and Municipal Health Offices.
     Last Sunday, we met with the officers and members of the RVC of Namtutan to re-activate and reorganize if needed. Initial meeting and orientation with our club's present projects with other RVCs was conducted. Aside from the RVC members, non members who wanted to join the RVC were present, too. There seems to be a need to reorganize and revitalize the RVC since it has been inactive for the past years. Hopefully, with their reorganization, we can proceed with the Leadership Training for all our active RVCs to be followed by livelihood trainings like hog fattening, soap and candle making.

Ferdie's time                                 Secretary's Report

- editor