A Filipino doctor in Pasig was among the five recipients of the prestigious Bob and Leila Macauley Humanitarian Spirit Award given by an international relief organization.
Iloilo-based publication The Daily Guardian reported that family practitioner doctor in Pasig named Dr. Maria Mayumi Gillana was among the five winners of the award bestowed by AmeriCares, a US-based health and relief organization.
Cena Marie Gillana, daughter of Mayuma also confirmed this to Interaksyon.
The Filipino doctor was chosen because of her volunteer work as a member of the AmeriCares emergency medical team. She cared for survivors of disasters and the poor.
Dr. Mayumi has nine years of of humanitarian experience, with more than 6 years of them in Americares as an emergency responder.
The other four winners are:
- Nizamuddin Abdul Karim Sheikh, a community health volunteer in India
- Miguel Marrero Medina, PHD, MPH of Puerto Rico
- Jean Kenes Eloy, MD of Haiti
- JayVon Muhammad, CEO of SWLA Center for Health Services, Louisiana
In 2019, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta was the recipient of this award for his coverage of important health stories in the US and around the world.
AmeriCares said the Bob and Leila Macauley Humanitarian Spirit Award honors the “outstanding individuals who exemplify extraordinary courage and commitment to humanitarian endeavors and making a difference in the world.”
Given the still raging novel coronavirus pandemic, the award ceremony was held in an online livestream titled “Heroes of Health” through AmeriCares website.
#Airlift2020: The best hour of your week starts Saturday, October 3 at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT) as we honor #Heroes4Health: Americares.org/Airlift2020! 😊
Posted by Americares on Thursday, October 1, 2020
AmeriCares had been donating medicine, supplies, local infrastructure and other forms of health-oriented solutions since 1979, according to the organization’s profile,
It was founded by Robert Macauley and his wife Alma Jane “Leila” Macauley.
In a Facebook post, Mayumi said she was “humbled, honored and happy” for the award bestowed upon her.
Plight of Filipino health workers during the pandemic
Since the start of the tough lockdowns last March, health workers in the country have faced various struggles such as lack of mass transport, low pay with minimal hazard pay, work discrimination and long, tedious shifts of treating patients with the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.
Last August, TikTok user Jazzmin Comaling featured these sacrifices and woes on her TikTok video and compared them to the benefits and higher salaries that medical workers receive abroad.
On the same month, President Rodrigo Duterte also accused medical workers of inciting a form of sedition after they appealed for the national government for tighter measures for 15 days as a “timeout” amid the continued surge of infections on a daily basis.
The modified enhanced community quarantine was eventually re-imposed for two weeks that time.
However, government agencies were perceived to miss the health-oriented solutions that the country’s health sector had plead for.
