Newsletter – Family to Family, Inc.

This section of our website is updated quarterly.

Spring 2025

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

Dear Friends,

1975 – 2025 CELEBRATING 50 YEARS!

Family To Family is celebrating 50 years of providing assistance to children in the Philippines. We want to give our sincere thanks to all who have helped us over the years. We thank all of our staff from the young women who helped us care for the foster babies in our home, to the teachers in our day care, Kindergarten and feeding program in Cagayan de Oro, to the teachers, nurses and volunteers who helped make our school for dropouts in Camiguin a success. I also thank all of our own children, who eagerly welcomed and helped care for our foster babies. And we give special thanks to our present staff: Jesse, our manager, and Lea, our nurse, who take care of all of our present programs. And German, now in his early 60’s, who has helped with the delivery of school supplies each month for over ten years. Twenty-five years ago he also worked on the construction of our school.

We thank the many doctors in Cagayan de Oro and Camiguin, who have helped us care for the foster babies in our home and the children in our feeding program and the handicapped children in Camiguin. They have saved lives and improved the futures of many children. We especially thank Dr. Paz, the optician who has partnered with us to provide eyeglasses that have improved the vision of so many children in Camiguin for over forty years.

We thank the Division Office of the DepEd, Camiguin and all of the elementary and high school principals and teachers, who are our partners in helping the students whom we sponsor. The division office invited Lea to a special awarding ceremony in December. They presented her with a Plaque of Appreciation for Family To Family’s continued assistance to school children. We are happy that this partnership, which started with just 2 elementary schools over 40 years ago and now has grown to 30 elementary schools and 8 high schools, continues to help keep children in school.

And last, but by no means least, we thank our donors who make all of this possible. Some of you started with us in the very beginning and some are new. We are grateful to all of you for your share in the educational, medical, and rehabilitation services we provide.

SPED

Crissa is six years old and in her second year in Kinder in the SPED class in Mambajao. She is autistic with multiple learning disabilities. She is making progress and can now follow simple instructions, although she sometimes gets distracted. She can recognize lower case and capital letters and match them. She is also learning the sounds that the letters make.

Louis is now ten years old, but still in the SPED Kinder class. He is quite small for his age. He continues to learn new skills. Lately, he is working on matching colors and developing fine-motor skills by picking up colored balls with a plastic tweezer and putting them in corresponding colored bowls. He is also very good at coloring. He concentrates and works hard on whatever the teacher has him do.

Gian Galla, who is in Grade Three in the deaf SPED class, is now 16 years old. He can read and write. He is doing well in all of his subjects. He is very talented in art projects and made a colorful Christmas star in December.

HANDICAPPED

Constancio is twelve years old and in Grade Six. His mother brought him to Lea because he had been having headaches and said his vision was blurred. He was regularly rubbing his eyes. Lea referred him to Dr. Paz. He was found to be far-sighted and also has astigmatism. He was prescribed glasses and can now see clearly. And the headaches are gone. In 2024, we provided eyeglasses to 12 new children.

Rotchie is the child with congenital arthrogryposis whom we have mentioned before. Her hip and knee joints are very stiff and some of her fingers are also affected. She is now two years old and has had physical therapy since she was a newborn. At present she can sit and stand with support. She can also move around on the floor by wiggling while lying on her back. And recently she started to verbalize some sounds. We provide the carfare for her to go to PT twice a week. She was born with a cleft palate as well, but she needs to gain some more weight before she can have surgery to correct the cleft.

SCHOOL SPONSORSHIP

In February, Lea and Jesse delivered the monthly supplies of pens, pencils and paper to the 30 public elementary schools where we sponsor five students in each grade level. And a week later, they delivered the last cash stipend for this school year to the 240 high school students in eight schools around the island. As usual, the teachers and students greeted them with smiles.

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