Advocates, health care workers, educators, parents, and civil service organizations can learn a thing or two from how a small organization in Palawan changed thousands of women and young people’s lives.
As a professor at Palawan State University, Susan Evangelista witnessed how her students dropped out of school after getting pregnant, usually unplanned. She saw, through her students, that unplanned pregnancies usually derailed young women from what would’ve been a bright future.
More than 10 years ago, Susan saw first hand that the problem of unplanned pregnancies comes from a lack of reproductive health education and services in the Philippines. This realization led to the birth of the organization now known as Roots of Health (ROH) or Ugat ng Kalusugan, the first nonprofit to provide comprehensive reproductive health services and education in Palawan.
In her personal memoir, “Starting Up: Roots of Health and the First 10 Years,” Susan shares the stories of the organization’s different programs–from lives saved to challenges conquered.
In the more than ten years since Susan founded the organization together with her daughter Amina Evangelista-Swanepoel and Ami’s husband Marcus Swanepoel, ROH has provided services and education to thousands of women and young people. The organization has also supported its government counterparts’ efforts to carry out its reproductive health programs in line with the Reproductive Health Law, which was passed in 2013.
“Starting Up,” however, is a story that goes beyond the organization. Our impact would not have grown exponentially without the support of passionate women and youth serving in their communities and schools, or our counterparts in public service: educators and public health officials pushing for sexual and reproductive health rights, despite the prevalent conservative culture in the country.
This book is a story about people–from the organization’s trailblazing founders and leaders to its dedicated, passionate staff members. These are stories not just of the organization, but of the communities and individuals who learned to take charge of their bodies, their lives and their futures. It is a testament to how a single idea can be multiplied a thousandfold into huge impact. And, on top of everything, it is a labor of love.
