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PSHF
Philippine Self-Help Foundation
GRANT UPDATES
Roselyn Acosta with daughter Uvelyn
| Roselyn | |
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GFOC 1691
Grant: Medication and Livehood Amount: 9,000 pesos (US$155) Date Approved: September 2015 |
to be very advanced and she died in hospital a few days after she first came to the office. After Roselyn’s funeral, Eugenio (her husband) went back to live in the family home to look after Uvelyn who is his and Roselyn’s child. Uvelyn quit school when her mother started to get sick in September. Eugenio will see to it that she remains in school. The PSHF is committed into helping Uvelyn with her schooling. |
Mark Louie in a provincial hospital ward with his parents Melu and Mario Taroballes
| Mark Louie | |
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GFOC 1690
Grant: Medication and Schooling |
Mark Louie Taroballes (16) was diagnosed with a blood disorder called Beta Thalassemia. He quit school six years ago because of this. Instead he now attends ALS or alternative learning system classes in his community. Ma’am Valerie is his instructor in ALS. There are about a dozen young people who attend these classes and Mark Louie is the youngest. They meet two afternoons a week - Mondays and Thursdays, at the local community centre. Mark Louie likes both English and Science subjects. Among his classmates, he is the most articulate speaker of English, and this is probably the reason why he has become his teacher’s favourite. Thus when he was absent last week because he needed to be in the hospital for a blood transfusion, Ma’am Valerie called to ask how he was doing. At the same time, she gave Melu (Mark Louie’s mother), the name of a friend who works in a charitable organisation which operates in the hospital. She said that Melu could approach this person for help. At the hospital, Mark Louie needed quite a few laboratory tests as well as an ultrasound. Aside from the blood transfusion concern, he was also diagnosed with epididymitis which is the inflammation of the epididymis - the coiled tube that connects the testicle with the vas deferens. This disease is usually linked to a urinary tract infection and this can be very painful. Melu did not have money for these tests and so approached Ma’am Valerie’s friend. Thankfully the organisation where Ma’am Valerie’s friend works agreed to provide for the cost of all Mark Louie’s laboratory tests. This had saved Melu a few thousand pesos and she was so grateful to Ma’am Valerie for referring her friend. |
Maricris in her favorite chair in the PSHF-Bacolod Office.
Hannah with her aunt Eva
in the PSHF office.
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Maria Mae with her father.
Amid smiles while his photo was taken in the hospital.
Irene smiles in front of the PSHF Office.
Regina, Vicente, Roslyn and Mary Ann.
Melsan in his college uniform.
RJ's (5) latest visit in the PSHF office.
Violeta (middle) with husband, David and their daughter, Vida.
Quirino with his mother, Victoria.
| Mariciris | |
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GFOC 1690
Grant: Medication and Schooling |
Richard relates his visit to Maricris in the dialysis ward of Bacolod city’s Riverside hospital on November 1st. We, in the PSHF have been worried about her as just two week ago, she was hospitalised due to chest pains and breathing difficulties.
I find her in the far corner of the ward; her husband Jimmy is beside her. She is lying down with a tube connecting her left arm to a dialysis machine. Maricris gives me her latest news. She tells me that she has moved out of her sister Marife’s house and is now living with Jimmy’s family in a large two floored house with twenty occupants. She was happy staying at Marife’s as it was quiet and she had a garden. She also had two dogs, Severus and Cookie but sadly both of them died. She decided to move in with Jimmy’s family because she was often alone and when she felt unwell, she had no one to take care of her. Now she always has a family member nearby if she needs help when Jimmy is at work. Since her hospitalisation two weeks ago, Maricris has been advised by the doctor to stay at home. She misses her visits to the PSHF office as her work with us gives her a sense of purpose and the pleasure of camaraderie. We have been grateful for her help with auditing and the writing of project proposals for grant patients. (November 2014) |
| Hannah | | |
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GFOCS1616
Grant: Medical, House Repair and Livelihood Grant Amount: 24,000 pesos (US$550) Date Approved: April 2014 |
By this time, Hannah will have reached home and maybe excitedly showing her father, sister, cousins and other relatives of her "new look", i. e., her neck minus her goiter. Early in the morning of Friday last week, she was wheeled into the operating room of the provincial hospital for the removal of her goiter. The operation lasted a few hours, and by early afternoon of Friday, she was back in the ward. Her aunt Eva Tolentino, who was a PSHF loan recipient in Sipalay, was the one who looked after her while she was in the hospital. She spent 3 days convalescing at the hospital before going home to Sipalay this afternoon with her aunt. She is coming back to Bacolod next week for a follow up check up.
Hannah and her aunt are most grateful to the PSHF for this life-changing event in Hannah's life. (May 2014) |
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| Maria Mae | |
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GFBO610 Grant: Removal of tumour Amount: 20,000 pesos (US$465) Date Approved: December 2010 |
In January 2011, Maria-Mae, a baby girl born to a poor family in Tubigon on Bohol island had surgery for the removal of a huge tumour.
A couple of weeks after the Bohol earthquake, a PSHF team visited Tubigon and looked for her and her family. We are pleased to report that despite the family's home being completely destroyed, the family is unharmed and Mari-Mae is a bright and cheerful three year old. Her father showed us her stitch marks; one day she will be old enough to understand their truly remarkable significance. (November 2013) |
| Amid | |
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GFOC 1562 Grant: Aplastic Anemia - treatment and bone marrow test |
Amid (16) and his sister-in-law Rosalie were in the office last week. It is always Rosalie who accompanies him each time he is hospitalised or has a medical checkup. Amid was looking 'intensely' dark. Rosalie explained that this was because his platelet count was down to 3 (normal level is 150 to 400). In fact, Dr Calahong, his doctor had already given her a referral note for a hospital admission or a blood transfusion the following day.
We realized that his last blood transfusion had only been three weeks ago. This was not good news, alarming indeed, and so we thought of getting a different prospective on Amid's condition. We went to see Doc Aries who is an alternative medicine consultant. The first thing he (Doc Aries) did was to look at Amid's tongue and it was looking pale. Then he asked Amid if he was eating foods such as barbecue, pork, bread and biscuits, spaghetti, etc. With naiveté and confidence, Amid confidently said yes to all the items he mentioned. Then Doc Aries gave him the bad news; i. e.,the damage these foods can bring to his body. I was observing Amid and he started to look guilty. Doc Aries then wrote down a few food supplements for him to take and at the same time exhorted him to eat vegetables and fruits. Rosalie, feeling happy in having Doc Aries as an 'ally', declared that there are vegetables growing in the backyard of his parents' house. A week later, we get the encouraging news from Rosalie that Amid is adjusting well to his new 'diet' and is less prone to fatigue. |
| Irene | |
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GFOC 1560
Grant: Gallstone Operation |
We were delighted to have Irene come to the office today. She was looking so well; only a few months ago, she was in terrible pain and thought she would die. She had come to the point of asking her husband Roberito to look after their children well when she was gone. The excruciating pain in her abdomen turned out to have been caused by stones in her gallbladder.
The PSHF provided the funds for Irene to undergo surgery to have her gallbladder stones removed; there were eleven of them in all and she had suffered in silence for years fearing the need for surgery which she and her husband could not afford. Thankfully her operation was a success and she has made a full recovery. She is deeply grateful for the help which she says saved her life. We now want to help Irene once more but this time with a loan. She and Roberito want to start a small business buying and selling scrap. We discussed the details when she came to the office today and we hope to finalise the proposal of assistance this month. (31 October 2013) |
| The Sebaste Family | |
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GFOC 1546
Grant: Medical and Educational |
Mary Ann Sebaste has resigned herself to working in the sugarcane plantation after it was confirmed that she is pregnant. Sadly the young man (a neighbour) who had made her pregnant has not been willing to take responsibility because he claimed that he is not the only boy in Mary Ann's life. Sadder still is the fact that Romeo Sebaste, Mary Ann's father, has gotten himself a woman partner in the faraway town of Himamaylan. As a result, he is giving less and less to Mary Ann and her younger siblings, only 300 to 500 pesos per week. In the past, he would give cash and 10 kilos of rice, a week's supply. Despite these sad circumstances, Roselyn and Regina Sebaste, (Mary Ann's younger sisters), as well as the other children in the neighborhood, showed genuine delight when PSHF field worker, Lester Joy, brought them basic school supplies such as pad paper and pencils. They shouted with glee upon receiving these things.
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| Melsan | |
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GFOC 1569 Grant: Education |
We first came to know Melsan when he would drop by the office to sell his home-made banana cue. He was 14 years old at the time and he used his earnings to buy food for his paralyzed mother and his three younger siblings. Sometime later, we helped his mother receive medical treatment for her diabetes and hypertension; he and his siblings were also given capital to retail rice and charcoal and their family home was repaired.
Five years on, Melsan has become a delightful young man and he is now training to become a teacher. He has just finished his first semester in college, and by studying hard, he has made it to the Dean's list this semester. Presently he is staying with a kindly couple who provide him with his pocket money to school and he does some household chores in return. Next semester, Melsan is hoping that he can get a part time job in order to pay his way through school. Melsan's mother sadly died in 2010 and he and his siblings were orphaned. Melsan is studying in Bacolod city and his siblings are staying with an aunt in Manila. |
| RJ | |
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GFOC 1570
Grant: Chemotherapy Amount: 36,000 pesos (US$840) Date Approved: July 2013 |
RJ had his chemotherapy last August 12th. Despite his illness, he is an energetic and amiable boy. His visits to the office are a source of delight for us. The good news is that his hair is growing back; even his teachers in school noticed it too.
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| Violeta | |
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GFBO 771
Grant: Chemotherapy, Laboratory - Lymphoma Cancer Amount: 40,000 pesos (USD$930) Date Approved: August 2013 |
Violeta who is suffering of Lymphoma cancer (Stage II) had her 7th Chemo treatment in August 2013 and her final session was last September 2013. The latter however was quite delayed on schedule as she had to be confined for a week in the hospital and transfused with blood to increase her platelet count. Now that she had completed her chemotherapy sessions, she will have series of laboratory tests by October to determine if her cancer cells were all removed.
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| Quirino | |
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GFBO 764
Grant: Medical Assistance - Kidney Failure Amount: 15,000 pesos (USD$350) Date Approved: June 2013 |
A surgery was done to remove excess water so now he no longer experiences breathing difficulty, nor are his feet painful.
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