Lionheart Farms is beefing up its capacity to address the medical needs not only of its partners and employees in Rizal, southern Palawan where it is operating but also the community at large.

The initiative arose from the continued efforts of the company to assist those in need as the global pandemic continued to impact the entire province.

Lionheart recently initiated the hiring of medical personnel including a full-time nurse to fulfill its commitment to a healthy and safe work environment. The Company is also advertising for a doctor to be retained so that it can provide all its employees and their families free health consultations on a regular basis.

“We already do annual health check-ups for our employees and it is a requirement when joining the Company. This COVID-19 has increased the need for health information and active enforcement of health precautions with appropriate guidance in the workplace,” Lionheart Vice President Maria Cecilia Chang said.

“The pursuit of hiring a nurse, making a doctor available, and establishing consultation rooms in our main places of work will help our people in this extraordinary time of uncertainty,” she added.

Lionheart recently completed a mobile X-Ray examination in the two barangays of Rizal, namely Punta Baja and Culasian.

The Lionheart medical care team is designed to shape company health services, assess health needs, reduce health inequalities, and work in partnership with local agencies to augment their services.

“Over the last four years, we have seen an improvement in the health services, most notably the opening of the hospital in Punta Baja in 2018,” Chang said.

Chang said they realized they need to take up the slack as local health capacity tends to be stretched because of the pandemic.

“While we are always reaching out to cooperate with local health authorities, then we must also recognize that their resources will most likely be stretched thin in the coming years because of COVID19. So we try to do our part,” Chang said.

Quinlino Lumpon, an indigenous peoples (IP) leader in Barangay Ransang, said the company’s focus on medical concerns will benefit their community. He noted that many IP members are prone to diseases like tuberculosis.

Lumpon expressed how grateful the IP community was for the initiatives the company has in place for all of them.

“We are very thankful and glad that Lionheart supported our people in so many ways. The people here are barely making it through the day; many have no regular source of income. They are in dire need of work which the company provided,” he said

“Life is hard for mountain-dwelling communities, especially that diseases like tuberculosis have become more and more prevalent,” Lumpon said.

He added that many of them are also unable to travel to the city to seek the medical assistance that they need, including important paperwork requirements such as medical certificates.

“Lionheart is helping to organize these for us,” he said.