MANILA, May 2024 – DKT Philippines Foundation, a charitable non-profit organization promoting family planning and HIV prevention, officially launched the SODEX (Service Outreach and Distribution Extension Program) Mobile Clinic – the country’s first-ever family planning ambulatory clinic. This pioneering effort aims to provide safe and accessible modern family planning methods for Filipinos in far-flung areas to bridge the gap between Filipinos wanting to space and limit pregnancy and the disparities in Family Planning service provision.
The SODEX Mobile Clinic is an innovation to improve DKT Philippines Foundation’s SODEX Program and its contribution to achieving the DOH 8-Point Action Agenda and National Objectives for Health.
“DKT Philippines Foundation’s mission is to provide couples with affordable, and safe options for family planning, and HIV/AIDS prevention through dynamic social marketing,” said Loida Almendares, the Foundation’s Director of Programs. “The SODEX mobile clinic will provide a wide array of free family planning services, especially in areas with lesser access to services like geographically isolated or socially disadvantaged areas. The mobile clinic will bring the services closer to the people and meet them where they are,” she added.
The mobile clinic will provide free Family Planning commodities such as pills, condoms, injectables, and intrauterine devices (IUD). It will also offer free bilateral tubal ligation (BTL) using local anesthesia and non-scalpel vasectomy (NSV). Onboarding the clinic is a Physician/Surgeon trained in the provision of BTL, NSV, IUD, and subdermal implant services; an FP-trained nurse; FP- trained midwife; a circulating staff, and a driver. To ensure that all clients are well-informed and fit to take the services, they will undergo counseling and final screening before getting the method.
In partnership with 30 LGUs from Luzon, DKT Philippines Foundation aims to foster sustainable and long-term partnerships with these LGUs to cultivate Filipinos’ desire to meaningfully participate and contribute to government efforts to achieve universal health coverage for all.
“DKT Philippines Foundation and its Family Planning Mobile Clinic reinforce DKT’s commitment to ensuring nobody is left behind and provides free and quality reproductive health options including permanent methods, to those most remote and vulnerable communities. Made possible by the sales of family planning products under the TRUST Reproductive Health Choices brand, the mobile clinic ensures that people who still cannot afford the highly affordable TRUST products, or cannot access the reproductive health services they need in the public sector, are not left behind and still have free access to these services. It is part of a total market approach, complementing the important work the local LGUs do daily.” said Denise van Dijk, Chair of the Board of DKT Philippines Foundation.
The mobile clinic will travel for 119 days to offer free services in the provinces of Central Luzon, North Luzon, Cordillera, MIMAROPA, and CALABARZON with the first stop being at Binangonan, Rizal where the launch took place. The clinic will stay in one area from 8 AM to 6 PM for a day or two. By next year, the mobile clinic will cover communities in the Visayas and Mindanao areas.
The launch and blessing event was officially attended by fellow reproductive health advocates in the public and private sectors, development partners, and family planning clients. Guest of honor and speaker was Department of Health Undersecretary Dr. Glenn Mathew Baggao with special participation of the Mayor of Binangonan, Rizal – Hon. Cesar M. Ynares.
The programs and free services of DKT Philippines Foundation are made possible by the country’s leading brand of contraceptives TRUST Reproductive Health Choices, which is carried by the social enterprise DKT Health, Inc.
