Our Projects

Health

CFI champions a One Health approach, recognizing that human health, animal health, and ecosystem health are fundamentally interconnected. Our work addresses infectious diseases while tackling the environmental and social factors that shape community wellbeing.

Over the past decade, we’ve screened over half a million vulnerable Filipinos for tuberculosis and implemented community-based TB elimination strategies, earning the prestigious DOST Gelia Castillo Award for Social Innovations. Our pioneering leprosy research with RITM, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Leonard Wood Memorial, and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta proved that subclinical intervention is possible, transforming treatment strategies.

We shape policy, not just provide care. Our expertise informed DOH programs on neglected tropical diseases and the development of TB and Leprosy Clinical Practice Guidelines. We orchestrated the 20th International Leprosy Conference in 2018 with WHO and DOH, and continue active case finding and contact tracing initiatives.

Since 2015, our maternal and child health programs have strengthened families through feeding initiatives, vitamin supplementation, and midwife capacity building, ensuring the next generation thrives.

Environment

Healthy ecosystems are the foundation of healthy communities. Clean water, thriving marine resources, and preserved mangroves directly determine community health, nutrition security, and economic opportunity.

Our women-managed marine protected areas have earned international recognition, including the Blue Parks Award from the Marine Conservation Institute and the Para El Mar Award from the MPA Support Network. These conservation zones model community stewardship that delivers sustainable outcomes.

Hundreds of youth, students, women, and indigenous people across the Calamianes Island Group have become environmental champions through our programs. We’ve trained hundreds of individuals in community mangrove rehabilitation, creating ecological restoration and livelihood opportunities.

We develop evidence-based management plans for Marine Protected Areas like Baldat Mangrove Women-Managed Area and Binudac Marine Sanctuary, and supported Culion’s Local Government Unit in developing a Comprehensive Water Use Plan. Through organizing women, fisherfolk, indigenous people, and youth, we ensure those closest to resources have the strongest voice in their protection.

Our community-based, context-specific approach earns trust and delivers results.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Health outcomes emerge from the conditions in which people live, work, and thrive. True wellbeing requires economic opportunity, infrastructure, education, and social support systems working together.

We support small enterprises and community groups as catalysts for lasting change. By creating enabling environments where local businesses succeed, we generate employment, strengthen food security, and build economic resilience that reduces health vulnerabilities.

Our initiatives span infrastructure improvements, access to essential services, educational programs, and social support networks. This holistic approach addresses social determinants of health, the economic, environmental, and social factors that shape health outcomes more powerfully than clinical care alone.

We build capacity, not dependency. By empowering individuals and strengthening collective action, we help communities chart their own pathways toward sustainable development, improved health, and shared prosperity.