Newsletter – Family to Family, Inc.

This section of our website is updated quarterly.

Autumn 2024

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

Dear Friends,

SPED

Crissa Mae has been diagnosed with Autism. Last school year, when she was just five years old, we began sponsoring her transportation to the Mambajao SPED class for her first year of schooling. We are happy to report that she did very well. She won ribbons for: Star Smile, Eager Beaver, Dance Dynamo, Young Singer and Curious Explorer. It makes us all smile to see her proudly standing with those ribbons at the closing program.

HANDICAPPED

While Lea was delivering the school supplies to an elementary school in a rather isolated barrio, the principal brought Lourdes from her classroom so Lea could check her vision. Lourdes is eleven, but only in Grade 3. She should be in Grade 6. Lea examined her eyes and checked her vision. She found Lourdes has white pupils and could barely see. She suspected congenital cataracts. When she talked to the mother, the mother said they had already seen the eye doctor (who comes to the island once a month) last year. He had told the mother it was cataracts and recommended she go to Cagayan de Oro for surgery. But the mother said they had no money to go to Cagayan. The father is just a farmer and Lourdes is the youngest of 5 children. As of the writing of this newsletter, Lourdes is in Cagayan de Oro and we hope her surgery to remove the cataracts will be scheduled. We aren’t sure if IOLs will be inserted at the same time or if that will be a second operation.

Creshe Lou was referred to Lea by her school teacher as well. She has very poor vision. Her mother told Lea that Creshe Lou had cataract surgery at the age of 4 months. And she said that she had IOLs implanted. But lately her vision was very blurry. Dr. Paz, our optician, found she had a very high refraction similar to the refraction for adults who had cataracts removed in the days before IOLs existed. As it turns out, the mother was mistaken. The surgeon had told them to bring Creshe Lou back for IOLs when she is eight years old. She will be eight in November. Anyway, we paid for her glasses and she is seeing much better now. We hope to send her for the IOL surgery right after her birthday.

Sending children with clefts for surgery is always rather complicated, but in seven-month old Jhaniya’s case is was more so than usual. We always have a blood count and urine check before they go to Cagayan. Jhaniya’s urine had signs of an infection and she was put on an antibiotic. After that, the urine was re-checked and was normal. So, on July 27^th, her parents brought her to Cagayan de Oro, a trip by boat and bus or van taking 4 or more hours.

Lea sent Jhaniya to the hospital where we usually send cleft patients. She was examined and lab tests were repeated plus a chest x-ray. She was ok for surgery. The parents were told to wait in the city to be called for the surgery. (Maybe they there were other children already cleared for surgery, as it was school vacation time.) Fortunately, they had a relative in the city with whom they could stay. After a couple of days she began sneezing, followed by a cough a few days later. They went back to the hospital and she was given another antibiotic. They went back when she was well and were told again to wait to be called. Lea suggested that they go to another hospital which also handled cleft case, although it is a bit more costly.

After checking Jhaniya to be sure she was ok, this hospital also said they would call them for the surgery. By this time the father needed to go home to his carpentry job, so all three of them returned to Camiguin. About a week later, they got the call from the second hospital telling them to bring Jhaniya for admission. We were all relieved when her surgery was done on July 28^th.

SCHOOL SPONSORSHIP

At the end of the school year in May, several of the elementary schools asked Lea to attend their closing programs and they gave her certificates thanking her and Family To Family for the continued assistance to students in their school. Other schools sent their thanks through Facebook messenger.

Jesse and Lea have recently finished the big delivery of school supplies for the start of the new school year to the 30 elementary schools. At one school they captured a picture of James Aldin wearing his new eyeglasses and hugging his package of school supplies. He is six and in Grade 1. We had helped him to get eyeglasses two years ago but he had outgrown the frames. So we helped his parents get new ones over the summer vacation. If you would like to see pictures of him and other students with their new school supplies, they will be on our website (address below).

We are very happy to report that out of the 240 high school students we sponsor, 67 students received honors at the closing program. Of course, their teachers, and especially their parents were happy, too. Everyone is back to school now and Lea has given out all of the stipends at the eight high schools where we sponsor students.

Rey came to us at our Mapa school as a drop-out. He attended grades one through five. at that point, our school closed. But he continued as a working student on Camiguin and finished elementary and high school. Then he went to college on the mainland. He has now graduated with a BA degree in Secondary Education with a major in English. Tom would have been very proud of him. He is presently working to earn the money for the board exam review. We congratulate him for continuing to reach for his dream.

We recently updated our profile on Candid’s Guidestar, which is an organization that provides information on US nonprofit organizations. After our update, we were informed that we have again earned a Candid Silver Seal of transparency on GuideStar.

Grace & Peace,

Diane

PS Our 2024 Annual Financial Report is now available in our website.

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