Community in Action: Bagani Community Center opens in Bacolod City

Bagani Community Center opens in Bacolod City

written by Jean Paul Amit

The Champion Community Centers welcome the Bagani Community Center to its network of HIV care and wellness centers in the Philippines. Led by the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines (FPOP) and LoveYourself, Inc., the community center opened its doors once again on May 16, 2020 after its shortened soft opening in March of this year.

The Bagani Community Center was established in order for Bacolod, and the rest of its neighboring cities in the island of Negros to have access to quality HIV testing and treatment services. As an HIV care center, it also aims to provide psychosocial support through an internal network for persons living with HIV in the form of HIV counseling services.

The community center will be the first of Negros Island’s HIV Care providers with due thanks to FPOP, who advocates for sexual and reproductive health, mainly by providing access to HIV testing and sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening for men having sex with men (MSM), and pregnant women as well as their partners as part of ante-natal care. It also recognizes the needs of the youth, particularly adolescent minors, to have access to free HIV testing services. In addition, the organiza- tion serves the community of transgender women, who now have access to hormone therapy services and counseling.

By extending training and other means of capacity-building, the Bagani Community Center aims to host a growing communi- ty of volunteers, community facilitators, peer educators, and health care providers. Bagani adopts the community-based screening services template set by the Rajah Community Center in Iloilo City, and is also looking to be a provider of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP).

Since its soft opening on March 1, the Bagani Community Center has catered to clients with its 11 initial volunteers that have been trained and certified to conduct HIV screening as community-based services motivators. It is in the Center’s directive to have new batches of volunteers succeed previous ones as time goes on, so please feel free to catch updates on how to become a volunteer.

An honor bestowed upon the dauntless, Bagani is a title that was earned in early Filipino culture. To be acclaimed as a Bagani means to be a warrior who rises above one’s challenges, and because it takes heroism, we must evolve with modernity to champion the Bagani within us. The very definition of Bagani relies on the sense of community that which a Bagani honors with his victory. In the same way, the Ba- gani Community Center aims to dignify the City of Bacolod through service.

FPOP is able to commit its work through its local and international partners, and national and local agencies and facilities that provide resources, technical assistance and services. May Bacolod embrace the Bagani in everyone through this thrust.

Clients may visit Bagani Community Center between 1PM to 8PM, Wednesday to Sunday, at the 3rd floor of the NEDF Building, 6th Street, Bacolod City. Clients may also schedule HIV screening through their Facebook page @BaganiBCD.