This section of our website is updated quarterly.

Summer 2025

Address: Barrio Anito, 9100 Mambajao
Camiguin Province, Philippines
Web address: http://family2family1975.org
E-mail: family.1975@yahoo.com

Dear Friends,

SPED

A teacher and good friend, whom we have known for many years, recently referred one of her Grade One students to Lea. The student, Francis, always turned his head to the side when he was trying to look at something. It almost appeared that he was hard of hearing. But his teacher recognized that it might be a vision problem. Lea told his mother to take him to the optician’s office. He was found to have astigmatism. When he received the glasses, he was very happy because he could see clearly and didn’t have to turn his head to the side anymore. He said that he is now the same as the other children in his
class.

Quian Jay was born after a prolonged labor of four days. He was blue at birth and placed in the NICU for a week. The mother said he had swallowed some meconium, (perhaps he had aspirated it as well). He was given intravenous antibiotics. At 2 years, he had started having seizures and was put on an anticonvulsant medication. He also has cerebral palsy. He can only walk if someone holds his hand and helps support him. We are now sponsoring the carfare for him to go to the SPED class. His grandmother brings him to school since his mother works at a store in town. He can identify numbers from one to ten. He listens to and follows the instructions of the teacher, and she helps him complete the activities. He can’t write because he has trouble holding a pencil. We are working on finding some sort of assistive device to help him hold a pencil.

Arjel just turned eleven years old and has cerebral palsy. He continues to do well in school. He is mainstreamed in the regular Grade Two class and will be promoted to Grade Three next school year. He could go to the school in his home barrio, but his family prefers to keep him in the Mambajao Central School. His mother drops him off every morning on her way to sell vegetables at the market and then brings him lunch at his school. Then she goes back to sell more vegetables and brings him home at the end of the day.

Lovely Jane is also eleven years old. She has been making steady progress in class. She knows some of the alphabet and numbers. She can write her name and the name of her school. And she works hard at whatever the teacher asks her to do. She is now mainstreamed in the Grade One classroom in the afternoons.

HANDICAPPED

Seventeen-month-old Kwynn Shanaya was playing in the yard outside her parents’ house when the family rooster jumped into the air and slashed her left eye with his claw. We don’t know why he did it, perhaps he was startled. The parents were advised to bring her to Cagayan de Oro. They left for Cagayan on January sixth and went to the hospital on the seventh. They were told there was no eye doctor and to come back on the ninth. On the ninth, they were told that there was a convention of ophthalmologists in Cebu City and that all of the eye specialists had gone there. They were told to come back on the fourteenth. They went to the hospital everyday anyway. Lea and I were just as anxious as the parents.

On the fourteenth, Kwynn was finally seen by the eye doctor and they scheduled an eye scan which was done 2 days later. Two days after that, surgery was done on the eye. Not only were her eye lid and the sclera cut, but a part of the iris was protruding from the cut. After surgery, she was put on IV antibiotics and four kinds of eye drops, both antibiotic and anti-inflammatory. She was discharged 10 days later with the eye drops to be continued. She went for another check-up two weeks later and after that, they came home to Camiguin. They had spent over a month in Cagayan, while her mother was in the last four months of her pregnancy. We consider it a miracle that despite the long delay in seeing an eye specialist and starting treatment, Kwynn’s eye was saved and she can see! The reason we provided assistance to Kwynn and her family was not to cure or treat a handicap, but to prevent one.

SCHOOL SPONSORSHIP

The public elementary and high schools closed during the third week of April. We were happy that a number of both the elementary and high school students we are sponsoring received recognition as honor students at their closing programs. Several schools also gave Family To Family certificates thanking us for our continued assistance to the children.

Lea and some of her friends will soon begin sorting and packing up the school supplies for our elementary school sponsorees. This is a somewhat a labor-intensive job. The supplies have to be sorted and packed into smaller packages good for five students for each grade level from Kinder through Grade Six. And the lower grades have different paper than the upper grades. The new school year will start in June.

Grace & Peace,

Contributions are IRS tax deductible (ID#42-1087104 and eligible for matching by employers. They should be made Payable to Family To Family, Inc. If in U.S. $, Canadian $ or European currencies, they should be sent to:

Family to Family, Inc.
c/o Availa Bank
126 W 6th St.
Carroll IA 51401-2341

Electronic donations can also be made with the Donate button in our website.

Letters should be sent to:

Diane Palmeri
3903 Pearl Avenue
Sophia, NC 27350
United States

Kwynn before and after eye surgery.

Arjel is now manistreamed in Grade 2.

Lovely Jane in her SPED Kinder class.

Lovely Jane and Kayla Amor doing art work.

Just a few of the honor students sponsored by Family To Family this school year.

Certificates of Appreciation from some of the Elementary schools.

For more photos of children being assisted, click here.