Abstract

Malaria is an endemic disease in many marginalized and socially-and- economically-disadvantaged Philippine villages, especially in remote rural areas frequently visited by heavily armed insurgents and devastating typhoons. In spite of domestic and international campaigns to eliminate - or prevent the transmission of - the disease, government and non-governmental agencies have observed an alarming increase in the rate of malarial infection. The obvious need to institute or improve control mechanisms vis-à-vis the malaria disease, or malaria mosquito, has led to numerous efforts to develop effective models in providing vital assistance to malaria-infected communities. One such model is the “Farmers’ Health Empowerment and Communication Model”, which a research team successfully tested in Barangay Danglas, a marginalized rural community in one of the municipalities in the Province of Abra, Philippines. The research highlights the experiences of farmers involved in malaria vector control, who have developed the competence and confidence to think, decide, and translate into action their knowledge of malaria vector control and undergo change based on their acquired knowledge. The research provides empirical support to validate an intervention model on farmers’ empowerment towards community participation.