Volunteer Youth Leaders for Health - Philippines: Providing a Mechanism for Youth Empowerment towards Advocacy for Birth Defects Prevention and Care

The Volunteer Youth Leaders for Health - Philippines (VYLHPhilippines) is a national youth network established in 2009 as a model of how to organize young women and men into a national force that promotes self-learning, independence, personal growth and sustained positive public health change from the grassroots level and up. Formed under the aegis of the University of the Philippines Manila and the Department of Health, the VYLH-Philippines has focused its activities in the past eight years on helping reduce mortality and disability from congenital disorders through awareness programs and support for policy development. This paper describes in detail the organization and extraordinary accomplishments of the VYLHPhilippines to date.