Health Action Information Network Inc. (HAIN)
Moving for Change
PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 2009

When the Health Action Information Network Inc. (HAIN) was established in 1985, its intent was, simply, to “serve in the Philippines the information and research needs of community-based health programs (CBHPs), which were established as an alternative health system for marginalized rural and urban communities,” the groups’ Web site states.  Over time, however, “HAIN's work with the CBHPs has expanded to include training and education activities,” just as “HAIN's constituency has expanded beyond the CBHPs to include development organizations and groups working with specific populations such as women, students, consumers, cultural minorities, peasants and workers, sex workers, and men who have sex with men. HAIN also works with media practitioners, academicians, government, officials and donor agencies in promoting health and development.”

And it is in being diversified that HAIN is widely known for.

Among HAIN’s programs are:

• Provide trainings (e.g. conducts training and educational activities throughout the country, particularly on reproductive and sexual health, and in pharmaceuticals).
• Researches, e.g. Development of Implementer’s Guide to 100% Condom Use Programme (CUP) in the Philippines, 2007; Post Exposure Prophylaxis Policy Guidelines, 2007; Community Perception on Family Planning, 1995; Confronting Ill-Health: Medicines, Self-care and the Poor in Manila, 1991; A KAP Survey in Metro Manila Among Dental, Medical Technology, and Midwifery Students, 1993; Responding to HIV and AIDS: Medical and Nursing Students in Metro Manila, 1991; and Dying for Drugs: Pill Power and Politics in the Philippines, 1988); and advocacy efforts (i.e. primary health care, rational drug use, HIV and/or AIDS, and gender, sexuality and reproductive health).
• Publications include the AIDS Action Asia Pacific (AA-AP), a quarterly newsletter on HIV prevention and care; Pornography: Beyond the Sizzle, which discusses issues and questions that revolve around pornography such as rape and sexual crime, the centerfold syndrome, and censorship; Abortion: Realities and Responsibilities, which tackles research findings from a nationwide study on abortion conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute; Primary Health Care Approach to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, which looks at the shift in perspective from a medicalized and biomedical framework to a more sociopolitical-cultural and biopsychosocial approach to health; and Knowledge, Attitude, Behavior and Practices on HIV/AIDS among Filipino Youth and Health Workers, which looks at the changing perspectives on HIV and/or AIDS.
• Information retrieval.
• Skills building activities, e.g. training and consultations intended for key persons in the resource center from different local and international organizations, the academe and local government units to provide a venue for key people to discuss issues related to resource center management, update and share experiences and resources, expand partnership, and to strengthen networking among resource centers.

HAIN is the secretariat of the People’s Health Movement in the Philippines, providing support to the People’s Charter for Health, now the common tool of a worldwide citizen’s movement committed to making the Alma-Ata Declaration (Health For All) dream a reality.  HAIN is also a member of the Gender, Reproductive Health and Population Policies (GRHPP), an international action-research initiative; and the Health Action International-Asia Pacific (HAI-AP), a network of organizations and individuals involved in health and pharmaceutical issues.

Believing that “health is a development issue with economic, political and cultural dimensions,” HAIN – states in its Web site – therefore pushes to “empower people and communities with access to objective and accurate information on health care to make their own decisions and to organize for their rights. With the help of its vast information network, HAIN seeks to provide information at the local level, where it is needed the most.”

For information, visit 26 Sampaguita Avenue, Mapayapa Village II, Brgy. Holy Spirit, Quezon City; call (+632) 9526312 or telefax (+632) 9526409; email hain@hain.org or hain1985@gmail.com; or visit www.hain.org.