Philippines - Local Hero

By Unreported World

Magdalena 'Lina' Bacalando has been a Community Health Worker for the reproductive health charity Likhaan for 12 years. She dispenses free family planning advice and contraceptives to some of the most deprived people in Manila. Her two-room clinic in the shanty town of Vitas sees around 1000 women a month. Lina provides a controversial service that is desperately needed in one of the most overcrowded places on earth.

We met Lina as she was giving a consultation to Mary Anne, a 29-year-old mother. Mary Anne had very little understanding of birth control - she'd already been pregnant nine times, and had had two abortions as well as seven children.

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