ABSTRACT The concepts of community and health together provide the foundation for understanding community health.

The term community refers to a collection of people who interact with one another and whose common interests or characteristics form the basis for a sense of unity or belonging (Anderson & McFarlane, 2004). The view of community health is the meeting of collective needs by identifying problems and managing interactions within the community itself and between the community and the larger society. Thus, community health programs are provided to help meet these needs. Fadz Peak Trekkers 2012 had been exposed to the community of Purok Balakayo, Barangay Olympog, General Santos City. It is a rural type of community where people are engaged in variety of agricultural activities apart from its scenic beauty which is rapidly gaining popularity as being a tourist spot, famous for zipline and cable car, Pacquiaos Octagon, resthouses, springs, admirable people, and the highest peak in General Santos City, the Sanchez Peak. This study is a non-experimental research specifically a descriptive normative survey which describes the health practices and condition of the community people living in Purok Balakayo, Barangay Olympog. The survey was conducted with the aid of questionnaires composed of both open-ended and close-ended questions. Self-reported data are collected from the community for purpose of describing the population in relation to

specific given variables. The questionnaire includes the personal data of the respondents, the general household data, the environmental data, the economic data and medical health data as well as some of the health perceptions of the members of the households. The results of the study show that the community has moderate competence in terms of health promotion and health maintenance. Basically, the residents in the community are interested in uplifting their health status but some of them have false beliefs and incorrect health practices. Socioeconomic factors seemed to serve as hindrance in their quest for achieving optimum level of wellness. After data has been collated, number of problems were identified including the foremost concern of the residents, the inadequate toilet facility, following were malnutrition, presence of manifestations such as colds, coughs, fever, and other communicable diseases, inavailability of medicines and health supplies during early signs of an illness, hygiene problems, home management for parents, enforcement needed for information dissemination, and beautification of the area needed to promote tourism. Materials for toilet construction were provided and distributed to the families who do not have their own comfort rooms. A communitys own nursery for herbal plants was successfully done by the mothers joint efforts. Series of health teachings were conducted. A blackboard was

donated, as well as sign boards with the name of Purok Balakayo in it, and books were also given to their elementary school. Based on the initial survey conducted, the student nurses had come up with different recommendations for the betterment of the community as well as to address the problems being identified so far. Active participation in the community organizations programs and meetings is highly encouraged, those influential and willing people in the community should take hand in hand the responsibility of empowering the members of the community to maintain what had been started to solve the problems and to promote a better quality life. Fadz Peak Trekkers aimed to provide quality and efficient community health services for the people and these were all possibly done by the eagerness and warmth of the people themselves. As the student nurses become responsible, culture-sensitive, and community-oriented, it is the people of Balakayo who created them turn into these individuals all along.