Implementation of Ibadah-friendly Hospital Program in Non-Muslim Country

Abstract

The Philippines is the only Catholic country in Asia, but our 1987 Constitution emphasized separation of church and state. Hence, there are lots of challenges in implementing any form of religious activity. The Muslims in the Philippines, which are collectively called Bangsamoro, are recognized as a minority which comprises around 5% of the total 110M Philippine population. Majority of the Bangsamoro live in Mindanao in the southern part of the Philippines. Because of the ratification of Bangsamoro Organic Law that gave rise to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the regional parliament supported the institutionalization of the Ibadahfriendly Hospital Program which eventually adopted and became a regional program of the Ministry of Health. Starting Ibadah-friendly Hospital Program implementation has been met with several challenges in the Muslim-dominated region. Bridging Leadership (BL) Framework was used to address these challenges. The BL framework starts with ownership: (1) from a bridging leader or champion for the cause; (2) shares the vision and mission to other stakeholders in co-ownership; (3) and eventually transforms the organization or agency to a model Islamic institution through co-creation. Strategies were developed for the Ibadah-friendly Hospital Program and the low-lying fruits were eventually implemented to have small quick wins. The IFH program is now being implemented by many hospitals in the entire BARMM because they saw the potential to continually improve their hospital service delivery with excellence.

International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Supplementary Issue 01: 2024 Page: S26