Philippines Vasectomy Mission

In January of 2012 I was able to participate in my first vasectomy mission with No-Scalpel Vasectomy International.

The mission was jointly hosted by Sacred Heart Hospital and South Western University in Cebu City, Philippines. Eight vasectomist participated: 5 from the US, 1 Canadian, 1 Kenyan, and 1 Filipino.

The mission, just like in years past, was a huge success. This success was only possible because of a group of highly motivated social workers, community activist, and Filipino doctors who recruited men interested in vasectomy from the city and nearby villages.

General medical mission to the Philippines

The first part of the Cebu mission was the vasectomy mission. During the end of our stay we joined a combined medical surgical mission and the purpose of that mission was to provide general health care to the citizens of Cebu. Participating in this mission was very fulfilling because many of the participants did not have regular access to the health care and they were very appreciative for the free care they received.

The Philippines is a beautiful country and the people we met were accommodating and generous. The Philippines is not without its problems. The country has a rapid population growth and is over-crowded in many areas. The population of the Philippines is over 100,000 million people who live in an area about the same size as the state of Arizona! In comparison, the population of the United States is approximately 300,000 million but spread out across 50 states! If you asked every person living east of the Mississippi to move to Arizona then you would have a population density simliar to the Philippines.

Many of the citizens of the Philippines don’t have access to basic health care. The photos below show some of the beauty and sadness which we observed during our stay.