Marga Antonio

BY DOMINIQUE U. MANIPOR

BEING IN service of others is a lesson that does not escape Ateneans. Marga Antonio (5 BS HS, Minor in Development Management) lives out this mission through promoting public health, not only within the campus, but also on the global stage.

As a health sciences major, Marga is thankful that her professors made her increasingly aware of the work that needs to be done in the Philippines’ public health system. From there, her work as this school year’s Vice President for Research and Discourse in Project LAAN and her involvement in the United Nations (UN) Youth Assembly became avenues to apply what she learned in the classroom. Throughout college, her experiences inside and outside of her course have solidified her passion and commitment to advocating for accessible healthcare for Filipinos.

Serving local communities

Her time in Project LAAN has deepened her understanding of the developments essential for people who are not adequately catered to by the public health system. The organization’s main advocacy is to increase healthcare access for Filipinos living in poverty, which it accomplishes by providing partner communities with modules that help them learn about their rights to healthcare and to make healthier choices. Meeting with Project LAAN’s partner communities helped Marga see that healthcare is physically inaccessible and unaffordable for marginalized sectors.

“To be able to hear the stories of people, such as nanays (mothers) who have to walk over a day just to get to the health center, pregnant, [and] hike down the hill—sometimes kasi you really don’t have access,” Marga shares. Marga sees that there is a necessity for key players, both inside and outside the medical industry, to contribute to the improvement of the country’s public health system. She considers effective communication imperative to making information on healthcare easier to understand. This entails arranging talks on healthcare and creating information campaigns that are easily understood, especially for communities with low literacy rates.

Widening her worldview

Though she was able to see the state of healthcare in the Philippines, her participation in the UN Youth Assembly allowed her to learn about public health on a global scale. Thanks to Project LAAN’s community development initiatives, she was able to shed light on the problems of an underdeveloped public health system in the country during the assembly.

After discussing issues that plague healthcare in different countries, Marga sees value in bringing in the knowledge of healthcare experts outside of the country. Dialogue with other countries will help resolve public health issues in the Philippines because other nations’ ideas can prompt viable improvements for the country’s public health system.

Aside from being able to engage in dialogue with young people from all over the world about public health issues, she and her team also pitched a project during the assembly that would improve literacy on mental health. Their project involved culturally relevant modules and resource materials for Filipinos, especially those in the poverty-stricken communities. She proceeded to be one of the top ten finalists that would present their initiatives in Washington, DC. “I think pushing for that discussion in whatever stage you are, whatever opportunity you have, that’s the best thing because that’s how...we’re hopefully going to reach a solution,” Marga says.

Life after Ateneo

Marga gradually learned that the whole process of advocating for a cause is not immediate as it needs to be continuously worked on for change to occur. The people involved in advocating to improve public health face the possibility that they will never see the fruits of their labor. Yet, the hope of creating a brighter future is what helps her power through to ensure that the advocacy lives on.

“There’s a lot of trust involved that you’re going to be working towards something that you might not see the results of, and the thing is that you do it because it’s necessary,” she says.

The inspiration to keep fighting for a better public health system comes from the people Marga encountered in different communities. She has witnessed the concrete effect of the country’s lacking public health system on families who cannot afford proper healthcare. Bringing her experiences from college along with her, she prepares herself for the lifelong commitment of advocating for the improvement of public health for those who need it most. Marga