Healing and Hope with East Avenue Medical Center

In celebration of women’s month last March 2015, Palamuti and our partner artisans held a three-day fashion/art workshop at the EAST AVENUE MEDICAL CENTER. Located in the very heart of Quezon City, Philippines, this general hospital is mandated by the Philippine Department of Health with a primary goal of providing quality medical care and treatment to patients in need, irrespective of their socio-economic status and religious creed.

EAMC provides training programs complete with materials and facilities aimed at providing medical and non-medical staff with opportunities for development, competency, and capacity building. With this credo, the hospital has continued to achieve its primary goal of delivering quality health care services for its patients.

In line with the hospital’s incentive of becoming a primary training and teaching center, the first day of the workshop was a benchmark for Palamuti. Two Palamuti artisans from low-income rural communities handled the session on basic handmade accessory making. Novie Katimpo from Ilocos Norte and Lyn-Lyn Rotamola from Eastern Samar were once beginners, and being able to teach a group showed just how much their skills have progressed. Their “students” were comprised of medical fellows, patients, and others who signed for the workshop upon finding out about it during their hospital visit. The first day session lasted for three hours, in which the participants expressed their creativity with their hands by making necklaces, earrings, and bracelets with basic wire looping.

For the following days, we had basic fashion illustration, conducted by painter Nikki Ocean, and basic wire-art, by Flow designer and sculptor,Steph Lopez. We’ll be discussing them on another blog post. All in all, the event was a success, and we’d like to be participate in more of the hospitals incentive of using creative outlets as a form of healing and hope.

Keeping it real. - PJV