Shy girl from Manila answers call for public service

A pure-blooded Manileña. This is how Dr. Jenilyn Ann Dabu describes herself. She would not describe their family as well-off, but her parents strived to give them the best education.

Growing up, Dr. Jen has always seen herself in the medical field as influenced by her cousins who are mostly nurses. As such, she ended up choosing nursing for college in Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM). To her joy, she remembers paying only 50 pesos per semester.

However, finding a job after graduation came as a challenge. That time, there were fewer jobs available in the already saturated market for the thousands of nursing graduates. “Ikaw pa ang magbabayad sa ospital,” Dr. Jen recalled just so they can have the required two-year hospital work experience.

While working as a volunteer nurse in Ospital ng Maynila, Dr. Jen told her parents that she still wants to pursue medicine. “Ayoko rin noong idea na na-set na mag-nurse ka, mag-abroad, at magpayaman. Hindi pala iyon ang satisfying for me.” At that point, Dr. Jen hungered more to become a doctor.

Dr. Jen then entered medical school in PLM in 2011 and finally got her license in 2016. On November 6, 2017 she was accepted in the Doctor to the Barrio (DTTB) Program and it officially started her journey as a medical doctor.

Manileña goes to the barrio

While serving in Ospital ng Maynila, Dr. Jen met some mentors who were also former doctors to the barrio. “Nakita ko na iba ang way nila sa pag-handle ng patients, and even ng workload.” It inspired her to follow their footsteps.

Spending most of her life in Manila, Dr. Jen told herself that maybe it was also about time to explore what is out there, outside Manila that had been her fortress since childhood.

In 2017, Dr. Jen was assigned in Cabusao, Camarines Sur in Bicol region. It was far from the comfort of her home in Manila. The only way to reach the municipality was through habal-habal. Naturally, the first challenges she had to endure were living away from family, getting along with new people, and learning their culture.

But the harder part was fulfilling her job as the only doctor in the municipality. “Hindi siya bed of roses,” this aptly describes the life of a DTTB for Dr. Jen. “I was the only doctor in a low-income municipality. For a newly graduate physician, I was expected to treat the local residents. It was a challenge kase bago lang ako. Bakit nila ako pakikinggan?” These worries were amplified by the multitude of responsibilities she had to juggle: managing a clinic and lying-in center, doing administrative work, and administering people including senior medical practitioners.

In her two-year stay in Cabusao, Dr. Jen realized that her job as a doctor was relational more than being technical. It means getting along with people who do not necessarily like her. “Kahit inaaway ka ng midwife mo, batiin mo siya every morning o kaya dalhan mo ng pansit. You really must go the extra mile. That’s one lesson not learned in school.” There were also instances when she felt that the residents doubt her experience as a physician because she’s a new graduate.

More than winning over difficult colleagues, it was even harder for Dr. Jen to make the residents understand the message she tries to convey and the changes they must make. Since most of the residents are indigent, some of them do not even understand the things she had written on her prescriptions. Most of them did not have sanitary toilets. The clinic did not have enough equipment to do necessary tests. “Mahirap siya at may point na nakakaubos. May time talaga na mapapaisip ka, worth it pa ba na magpatuloy pa? Pero ito rin ang nagpatibay sa akin, at nagbago ng worldview ko na kailangan mong mag-respond kung saan ka kailangan. Go where you are needed. Stay where you grow and where you can contribute more.”

All these sacrifices paid off for Dr. Jen when she witnessed the testimonies of the services she rendered. A senior citizen group wrote a petition for her six-month extension. A tuberculosis patient who wanted to give up on his condition eventually completed his medications. “It’s rewarding kasi akala mo hindi ka na-appreciate. I learned that validation does not equate to the numbers of applause you receive, but with the transformation of lives of the people you touched.”

Unleashing Jen 2.0

Being the assigned DTTB for Cabusao, Dr. Jen herself had undergone Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF)’s MLGP. Dr. Angeli Comia, a ZFF staff was also her thesis adviser. While doing her thesis about building resilience in barangays, Dr. Jen got the chance to use some of ZFF’s tools in improving and monitoring health systems. It was also when a colleague introduced her to the concept of bridging leadership, “Ang bridging leadership, hindi siya overnight. Akala mo bilang DTTB ikaw ‘yung magbibigay ng change. Pero iyong change na gusto mo, kung hindi pa nila nare-realize na kailangan nila yun, you have to co-own.”

It struck Dr. Jen.

With Jeremiah 29:11 as her guiding principle, Dr. Jen took a leap of faith and joined ZFF in 2019.

She has been serving as Bataan’s program manager for the Integrated Provincial Health Systems Development Program (IPHSDP). “Noong una kinekwestyon ko pa e kase magaling na ang Bataan. Magaling kase si Gov. [Albert Garcia]. So, anong niche ko dito? Then I realized that more than the technical know-how of Bataan, meron pa rin pala akong maitutulong lalo na sa Provincial Health Office nila.”

She describes herself as non-confrontational, but it seems that the universe conspires to bring her to situations involving managing difficult people. This time, she had to win a health champion who does not share the organization’s views about bridging leadership. But the shy girl from Manila stepped up, spoke her mind, and got the odds in the organization’s favor.

Two cents from the chairman

Dr. Jen remembers one instance when she had a one-on-one talk with ZFF Chairman Ernesto Garilao. “The first time I talked with Prof, he asked me why I joined ZFF. Baka daw gusto kong yumaman. Hindi raw ako magkaka BMW,” Dr. Jen laughed while recalling the conversation.

What she remembers most in this brief exchange is this: “Kung doktor ka, maa[a]ring may isa kang pasyenteng mapagaling. Pero dito sa ZFF, hindi lang isang pasyente ang mapapagaling mo [kung ‘di] ‘yung mismong sistema. You don’t get to meet patients directly, but you work with leaders in the government who [have] the power to improve the health system and benefit more patients.”

Dr. Jen holds on to this belief. “Ang prayer ko lang sa Lord ay give me enough blessings to live comfortably so I can continuously be an instrument to help, not just financially, but making impact to the lives of people to let them see the grace He has let me experience.”