Translated to English by Google Translate
Arabic News Source: https://www.albayan.ae
Abu Dhabi – Mustafa Khalifa
Date: 07 February 2023
The Selection Committee for the Emirates Health Foundation Award 2023 of the World Health Organization decided to award Dr. Maria Asuncion Silvestre from the Philippines the award for this year.
This came during the Commission’s meeting on the sidelines of the 152nd session of the Executive Council of the World Health Organization, which concluded its work today, February 7, and which considered the nominations of the eleven candidates for this award. It also considered the technical comments made by the Director regarding these nominations to decide to award the award for this year to Dr. $20,000, which is to be received during the World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva next May.
The UAE Health Award, which began in 1995, is awarded to a person, persons, institution, government organization, or non-governmental organization who makes outstanding contributions to the field of health development in the world.
Dr. Maria Asuncion Silvestre, a renowned physician and passionate advocate for exclusive breastfeeding is a non-governmental organization called Kalusugan ng Mag -Ina (Mother and Child Health) in the Philippines Dr. Maria Silvestre has used her experience in private practice in her community and draws on the results of her research and the data she collected from In the field of improving the health of mothers and newborns, I designed a pioneering protocol called “Basic Care During Childbirth and Newborn Care” consisting of a simple set of procedures designed for health workers who take care of the mother during childbirth and the care of her newborn immediately after birth and during the first week of his life, Its aim was to propose a range of affordable interventions that could be replicated in the context of any amount of resources, thereby helping to close the health equity gap and ensuring optimal conditions for exclusive breastfeeding.
In light of her research findings, Dr. Maria has made significant efforts to influence medical curricula in the Philippines and to forge close partnerships with public health authorities to expand her research and design data-driven policies to serve the most vulnerable populations. She has published numerous publications and taught pro bono. Her work has helped has saved countless lives nationally and beyond, having collaborated with 17 countries in the WHO Western Pacific Region to scale up the Embrace campaign for essential early newborn care, a range of simple and effective interventions from The organization-recommended cost that Dr. Maria Silvestre’s work helped shape, has tirelessly invested her time and experience in membership of several regional and international technical institutions to help advance primary health care.
Dr. Maria Asuncion Silvestre completed advanced studies in Neonatal and Perinatal Medicine at Children’s Hospital of Michigan and Wayne State University Upon her return, she attended the University of the Philippines College of Medicine and the Philippine General Hospital, committed herself to the development of breastfeeding in the mainstream of pediatric education and authored a class on infant nutrition and Young Children in Essentials of Pediatrics, a widely used textbook in the Philippines.