The Philippines

The Context

Women and children in the Philippines face significant health disparities and under-resourced communities often lack access to consistent, high-quality care. The country has made measurable gains in maternal and infant mortality — but nutrition gaps, emerging disease threats, and disaster-driven health crises remain.

The Philippines faces acute infectious disease pressures and high exposure to natural disasters, which regularly disrupt health systems and drive outbreak risks. Sustainable, long-term progress requires directly with Filipino government institutions, health workers, faith-based networks, and communities to address the full scope of the health challenges facing the country.

Our Impact

Today, our presence in the Philippines reflects a transition from episodic responses throughout our history to sustained, system-level engagement built for the long-term. Our work has a particular emphasis on frontline service integration, building local capacity, and preparing for future health emergencies. We work with various partners including national and local governments, the private sector, faith-based organizations, and more, because we know that collaboration is essential to delivering effective services and ensuring lasting change in every community.

Our programming recognizes that system performance depends on both technical competence and workforce well-being.

Supporting Mothers, Infants, and Young Children with Integrated Nutrition Services

Project HOPE is providing targeted nutrition support to children under two and pregnant and lactating women in two under-resourced communities through the LDS Nutrition Strengthening program. This is funded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in alignment with the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition. Project HOPE is equipping 600 community health workers and nutrition committees with the tools they need to improve health outcomes and reach more than 32,000 women and children in the barangays of Tatalon, Payatas, and Bagong Silangan in Quezon City.

Our team in the Philippines is committed to reaching underserved women and children through community-based health promotion and education sessions covering maternal nutrition, anemia prevention, iron-folic acid supplementation, optimal breastfeeding practices, complementary feeding, and micronutrient powder administration.

To ensure our work to improve the health system is sustained in the long run, the project is providing essential micronutrient and malnutrition treatment supplies, as well as equipment to upgrade the data, information, and service delivery capabilities of local health facilities. In partnership with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and local health workers, Project HOPE continues to look for additional ways to support the needs of women, children, and under-resourced communities in the country.

Strengthening Outbreak Detection and Response

Project HOPE is helping the Philippines strengthen the systems needed to detect, contain, and recover from infectious disease outbreaks. Building on five years of COVID-19 response, infection prevention and control programming, and tuberculosis service support, our team works alongside the Department of Health, regional health units, and community health workers to strengthen outbreak readiness.

Through the HERO-PH program (Healing, Education, Resilience, and Opportunities for Healthcare Workers), Project HOPE has trained hundreds of health workers in mental health and resilience skills essential to sustaining frontline service delivery during outbreaks, disasters, and surge events.

Our History in the Philippines

Project HOPE first worked in the Philippines in 1981, providing short-term medical humanitarian assistance. Then, in 2013, Project HOPE deployed 80 medical volunteers in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan and distributed medicines and health supplies worth $24 million. Afterwards, our team stayed for years, launching and running nutrition, maternal, neonatal, and child health programs until 2018. From 2020 to 2025, our team helped implement COVID-19, tuberculosis, infection protection and control, and mental health programs designed to protect health workers and people with chronic diseases.

Programs such as HERO‑PH (Healing, Education, Resilience, and Opportunities for Healthcare Workers) adapted global models to the Philippine context, trained hundreds of health workers, and built local trainer teams to sustain impact.

Throughout our history in the Philippines, Project HOPE’s focus has been the modernization of health facilities, improving health access for under-resourced communities, strengthening health service delivery in disaster-affected areas, and improving the health of women and children in vulnerable positions.