Testimonials

Dear PI-DPP Team,

Currently, Palau is inundated with high prevalence of NCDs. PI-DPP provides a pathway and mechanism to change Palau’s healthcare systems – healthcare fund and healthcare points of entries to institutionalize wellness and health protective measures as a mandatory primary care.

PI-DPP provided an opportunity for Belau Medical Clinic/Belau Wellness Center, Inc. to implement and test our wellness screening tool and health protective measures such as healthy lifestyle classes, exercise program, cooking classes in a more formalized way, having certified lifestyle coaches under the auspice of CDC. It gave us an opportunity to re-design and re-define our healthcare system from a disease model to a wellness model. This has become our opportunistic approach to bring wellness and health protective measures for individuals, people, and the community to access wellness and health services in the worksite and community levels to improve their health status.

Being a part of PI-DPP allowed Belau Medical Clinic/Belau Wellness Center, Inc. to be pioneers and a catalyst for change in healthcare systems in Palau. It’s important for us to have individuals and the community be aware that wellness and health protective measures are services that they can access to improve and maintain their health status.

Personally, PI-DPP gave me an opportunity to provide wellness and health initiatives for teachers, law enforcement-EMTs and police, and healthcare workers to improve their health status as they are the backbone of how we raise our children living in our pristine paradise. We now have a process to achieving health equity for Palauans and change our health status. We are now able to recreate learning for better health outcomes and design innovative access to physical activities, healthy foods, and happy selves living in Pristine Paradise.

– Pearl M., Program Coordinator

Dear PI-DPP Team,

In one Chuukese phrase, PI-DPP is “angangen ikenai, tufichin nesor,” which simply means, “today’s effort, tomorrow’s blessing.” In all the communities where PI-DPP is offered, as a coach I’m recognized as someone who shows care for people’s health in the community. PI-DPP has also helped me gain knowledge that prevent myself from getting type 2 diabetes. And from the knowledge I have, I am also sharing it with my loved ones who are at greater risk of getting diabetes.

PI-DPP has helped my broader community in so many ways. For example, the community benefits when we host “trash-a-thons” with our participants and it also keeps them physically active. My participants have gained more than just working on their weight. I am positive that my participants are also lifestyle change champions who can also change lives of loved ones who are not enrolled in the program by sharing testimonies of feeling energetic every morning they wake up and losing more than just 5% of their weight. More importantly, being in the program as a participant is an opportunity to change the way they defined their risk of diabetes themselves and to learn what they can do to prevent it.

We look at the community as a boat with passengers who are thoughtful of their weight, their diet, and management of stress. I would love to have PI-DPP offered in all the communities in the state of Chuuk and to Chuukese communities abroad.

– Mayleen S., Lifestyle Coach