Slated on January 18, 2008 at 7:30 P.M. at the Philamlife Center for the Performing Arts on United Nations Avenue the concert of challenging but enjoyable opera arias, Broadway songs, Josh Groban hits, Filipino art songs and kundimans features soprano Joscephine Gomez, one of the country’s established classical concert artists and the Philippines’ longest cancer survivor with collaborating pianist Carlos Perion and guest performances by tenor Dondi Ong, flutist GJ Herman Gomez, and soprano and fellow cancer survivor Pamela Pascua.

The event is presented by Mu Sigma Phi Medical Fraternity and Health Futures Foundation, Inc., to raise funds for the national campaign for health awareness.

The movement is inspired by the need to take a fresh, new approach to making the Filipino people aware of the current health situation and their power to change it for the better.

The problem. That the Philippines has problems in national health may be common knowledge to many, but the gravity and urgency of these problems is something that few are truly aware of. The diaspora of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals threatens to push the country’s already beleaguered healthcare system into crisis. Diseases such as tuberculosis and dengue continue to plague urban and rural areas alike while the cost of drugs continues to be prohibitive. Population growth continues unhindered, and poverty has forced thousands to resort to unsanitary living conditions and unsafe, risky occupations such as child labor and prostitution. Furthermore, public health education on these matters has been chronically low, further exacerbating the situation.

The response. It is in response to this that projects such as the concert Music and Healing have been launched, to raise funds for a nationwide campaign that will aim to increase awareness about the current situation of health care in the Philippines. Music and Healing is the first in a series of events geared towards bringing professionals and students from such varied disciplines as health care and the performing arts together to spread the message of self-healing and empowerment to the country. It is hoped that by presenting relevant health issues through such varied media as film, music, poetry, theater and the visual arts, vital information on health will be made more accessible to a wider audience, and leave a more lasting impact.

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