In the Philippines, 3,000 neighborhood health workers are taking on diabetes and hypertension door to door

In Quezon City, Reiza Dejito keeps meeting the same story: neighbors living with high blood pressure or diabetes who have never once been screened. So PhilHealth and CARE Philippines are training more than 3,000 barangay health workers — the Philippines' frontline village health volunteers — to close the gap. Under the B-STRONG program, the workers will run standardized risk screenings, enroll families in PhilHealth's YAKAP benefits, and connect high-risk residents to accredited clinics for free consultations and essential medicines. "Thousands of people are living with high blood pressure and diabetes, and most have never been screened," said Dejito, CARE Philippines' country director. "The care already exists... the piece that we can strengthen together is the connection between them." The program aims to reach 10,000 high-risk patients and cut premature deaths from heart disease and diabetes by 20% by 2028.