"You have truly lived if you have touched the lives of others" and "It is better to give than receive" are two of my favorite quotations. This posting is a reflection and response to the question of my favorite quotations for my StoryWorth book. Reflecting and acting to the first quotation is our involvement ( Macrine and I) with the Medical and Dental Missions for several years to the Island of Marinduque, Philippines.
My action to my second favorite
quotation was illustrated with my Donations of Money, property and
expertise to the Philippines described also in this posting below.
Here's an excerpt from my article about our
involvement with the medical mission from my Hubpages.com writing
account.
We have helped our less fortunate brethren with our time, effort and resources. We know we have truly lived because we have touched the lives of others.
My wife and I had devoted our time and resources to this
humanitarian project since 1998. Our involvement in this humanitarian
project has given us satisfaction and its one way of the many ways one
can give back the good fortunes one receives while residing in the US.
Macrine showing off the newly purchased Mission T-shirts in front of our Conference Hall, Amoigon, Boac, Marinduque, Philippines
Dental and Medical Mission of Love
Macrine and I have been an active members of Marinduque International, Inc. (MI,Inc) for many years and have served for its seven bi-annual Medical and Dental Missions since 1998 in Marinduque, Philippines. MI, Inc is a non-profit organization based in the US. One of its missions is to provide free medical services to the impoverished residents of Marinduque, a small but beautiful island province in the heart of the Philippines. Our group is made up of migrants from the island now living in the first world, mostly in the US and Canada. Through hard work and skills, we have earned our good graces and fortunes from our adopted homeland and we have more than enough to share with our less fortunate country mates.
We are giving back to the community of our roots because it makes us feel good helping our compatriots. The more that we give of ourselves, the better we feel about ourselves. Whenever I work with the mission, I touch the lives of many of my poor countrymen living in the rural areas of the island. The organization motto is "Our mission is to help and together we will succeed". My medical mission involvement also projects my favorite quotation: "The time that you have really lived is the time you have touched the lives of others".
Our mission starts with fund raising by members mostly from our own pockets, friends and relatives. We recruit volunteer doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and non-medical support staff to serve the missions, and they pay for their voyage to the islands. We procure and ship medicines badly needed by the islanders. Some of our members who own a place in the island, house the volunteers during the mission period. Others volunteers stay at the local hotels at their own expense but their whole week of food and local transportation is paid by Marinduque International. At the end of each mission we celebrate its success and thank the help of each volunteer as well as the local officials. It is also a time of reflection on all what we have shared of ourselves to our impoverished brothers and sisters.
The Dental and Medical Mission Servicing the Needs of 6000 Residents
The mission involves serving around 6,000 people from the six towns of the province who wait for hours in line under the sun, a difficult feat in a hot tropical humid setting, within a span of one week. About 40% of these patients from the interior of the province walked for 2 hours or more to reach the town center where the clinics are held. Most of these patients have never been seen by a physician in their lives. However, not everyone will be lucky to be seen by a doctor or provided free medicines. Many will return the next day to our new location to fall in line again and hope to be served for their needs. By the end of the mission a good number of people will never be served. It pains me to know and see the frustration of those who came hoping for help, only to be turned away due to constraints on our time, equipment and medicines.
Last February, it broke my heart when one patient had to be turned away when she was ready for a minor procedure on the operating table because surgical equipment was not available. It baffles me how the provincial government cannot provide a basic surgery instrument in its public hospital. We were on a mission to help and serve, but instead this patient had to deal with frustration, disappointment and anger.
During the mission I was assigned to the Pharmacy section, providing drugs and instructions to the patients. In the town of Buenavista, I had to break protocol and help a mother with her two sick young children. They were coughing and feverish, and were about to be turned away due to the limits in our time and medical volunteers.
I knew it was wrong and I could have been scolded for my actions, but I approached the mother, whispered to her to wait a little longer, and I could do something for her when the line has thinned down. Before closing time I waved for her, handed her vitamins, cough and fever medicines. She thanked me and showed me a smile that I will always remember as long as I live. On that day, I touched the lives of a mother and her two kids, and that was the day that I have really lived.
Macrine Welcoming Medical Missioners to Marinduque
Macrine and I welcoming medical missioners from US and Canada from ferry boat from Manila to Marinduque, 2011
I Cried and My Heart Melted Again
This 2011 Medical Mission of Love is not different from the previous missions that Macrine and I had attended since 1998. More than six thousand of the poor and the needy from the distant barangays in the province of Marinduque lined patiently from 4 to 6 hours just to see A PHYSICIAN and obtained free medicines ( cough syrup, multivitamens, pain medications, anti-acids and maybe antibiotics) for their aches and pains true or imagined. At the end of the day in each town, there are always about 200 to 300 more patients that have to be sent home since we do not have enough physician volunteers this year. This is the same case in our HOSPITAL operations. This year we had only 3 surgeons and 1 anesthesiologist. Thus we have to send a lot of patients home along with their disappointment and hopes that maybe in our next mission, they can be accommodated.
A hospital case that touched my heart and that made me mad: A patient was already in the operating table after the preliminary tests had been done the day before was sent home because of one basic instrument not available. I heard from the surgeon who stayed at Chateau Du Mer, that instrument he needed for the operation is a basic instrument, but the hospital does not have one. So where is the priority of our provincial and health officials?
In Buenavista, I helped in the repacking area section of the Pharmacy Department. At about 2PM, there were still about 200 to 300 patients waiting in line. The patients were told to go home, since there already 200 in line ahead of them and our physicians will not be able to see them. However, about 100 did not go home in the hope that multi-vitamens and cough syrup, and Paracetamol will still be given to them at the end of the day.
One middle-aged woman with her 2 kids ( Ages 3 and 5)started begging to the two of us working in the repackaging area very closed to the lines. She said her 2 kids are coughing and had fever and asked us if we can give her Paracetamol and cough syrup. I looked at her and the two kids and my heart melted and I shed a tear or two.
I stood up, talked to the Pharmacist-in-Charge that day and she told me "NO". She told me that If the others in line saw me giving the drugs only to her, if might cause a RIOT. I whispered to the woman to wait until closing time. By 4:30PM there will still around 10 patients waiting. At around 5:00PM there were still a couple of patients hanging around. But, I called the woman aside, give her a bottle of Paracetamol;, cough syrup and multi-vitamens along with the usual instructions. She thanked me an gave me a SMILE that still lingers in my mind today.
Here's my article REFLECTING/ACTING TO my second favorite quote of:
It is Better to Give than Receive
1. Money: Last May 7, 2014, Renan del Rosario, 1977 chemistry graduate and currently one of the advisers of the University of the Philippines Chemistry Alumni Foundation (UPCAF) treated me lunch and a personal tour of the new Institute of Chemistry Teaching Building at the UP Diliman National Science Complex. It was one of the highlights of my 90-day snow birding sojourn in the Philippines that year. I was able to take photographs of the Donor Wall which included my name(see photo above). The Donor Wall is right at the entrance of the teaching building just by the side of the guard podium. That day reminded me of my student and teaching days (1952 to 1959) at the College of Chemistry now known as the Institute of Chemistry. I was only 24 years old when I first taught chemistry to Pre-medical, Nursing, and Engineering students in the Fall of 1957 to 1959.
Currently, I am a Life Member of the University of the Philippines Chemistry Alumni Foundation. I graduated from UP with a B.S. Chemistry degree in 1955. Immediately after graduation, I was appointed Assistant Instructor in Chemistry in my Alma Mater. A year later after I passed the National Chemistry Board Examination coping 3rd place, I was appointed to Instructor and held that position until late 1959 when I decided to pursue graduate work in the United States.
The construction of a National Science Complex in Diliman, Quezon City started a few years ago which included a new Teaching Building for Chemistry. The first phase of government Funding was 200 million pesos and the second phase was 118 million pesos.
In the Fall of 2013, I had the opportunity to visit the construction site through the kindness of Renan Del Rosario, the Chairman of the UPCAF Board of Trustees that year. Fund raising for furniture in the new building were undergoing also that year. That year, I also donated to the Foundation 10,000 pesos ( about $200) through Renan. I felt good about that donation. It was my way of saying thank you for the educational benefits that I had received from the University of the Philippines.( See my name listed in the Donor Wall in the above photo).
2. Property: Sometime in the middle of May, 1990, I donated several volumes of technical journals from the duplicate copies from Stauffer Chemical library that were about to be burned and discarded. I was able to salvage several volumes of hard bound copies of Journal of Chromatography, 1971-1976. Included in my donation were dozens of volumes of hardbound copies of BioChemistry, Volumes 1969-1984. The value of the donation was about $1500. Shipping was arranged through the Commission on Filipinos Overseas ( CFO). On May 23, 1990, I received a thank you letter from Alfredo Perdon, Executive Director of CFO,as follows:
Dear Dr. Katague:
The Commission on Filipino Overseas acknowledge with thanks the donation of five boxes of technical journals to the Institute of Chemistry, University of the Philippines.
Your donation is a manifestation of the willingness of Filipino overseas to be actively involved in the development efforts of the country. Such participation through the Commission's “ Lingkod sa Kapwa Pilipino” or “ Linkapil” likewise serves to strengthen the linkages between Filipinos overseas and their countrymen.
Needless to say, these books will be a most welcome addition to the journal collection of the UP College of Science Library and will certainly be useful to the thousands of students in the said university. Best Regards and thanks you again for your donation.”
3. Time and Expertise: In January, 1986, I participated in the United Nations Development Program at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. The program was for two weeks of consultancy ( lecture and management of research) at the U.P. Natural Sciences Research Institute( NSRI). My round trip fare was paid by UN and I also received a substantial amount of per diem during my consultancy period of two weeks. It was satisfying to give at least two weeks of my "Know-how" to my Alma Mater. The program at that time was called TOKTEN ( Transfer of Knowledge through Expatriate Nationals). Today, it is called Balik scientist program. The program helps in the alleviation of "Brain Drain" from 3rd world countries like the Philippines. This experience made me feel good, because I have given back to my Alma mater, even just two weeks of my time in the field of pesticide research and analytical residues method development.
Indeed, as Einstein quotes, The value of a man resides in what he gives.
Meanwhile enjoy this video by Sulic and Genchev-Czardas
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