Spaghetti sauce that snowballs

 
By Choy Arnaldo
Manila
January 9, 2019
 


It’s almost miraculous when one act of generosity spontaneously ignites the generosity of others.

Way far from Manila and other urban centres of our thousands of islands, there is one remote island off the coast of Cagayan de Oro. It used to be the rock base of the major active volcano of the region several decades ago, appropriately named Hibuk Hibuk on the island of Camiguin. The island is in some ways like ‘little Spanish Philippines’ frozen in an architectural landscape of a century ago.  Raised houses still bear their Capiz shell windows and sawali walls. But the island also has a number of children with special needs—young ones that are deaf or partially blind, or cannot speak, born with cleft palate, lame for various reasons.

A generous friend offered several dozen packs of Del Monte spaghetti sauce and ketchup and sent several cartons by LBC to the Family to Family Children's Center  in Mambajao, Camiguin Island. There the coordinator and Registered Nurse, Lea, further tapped the generosity of some local folk and students who contributed additional goods, especially corned beef and pasta noodles, to fill up the donation bags. Another kind person paid a local lunch for all 48 special kids and their families from both ends of the island--all snowballing into a hefty donation and Christmas lunch for the kids and their families.



I think it is deeply human and beautiful that the generosity of one person is so contagious it ignites the generosity of others--a truly Christmas event! Heartfelt thanks to all you generous people!  This was very appreciated by these kids and their families, to be able to celebrate Christmas with good food and to meet their community. Special kids means they have serious health problems and need medical attention as provided by this Center owned and managed by the late Tom Palmeri and his nurse wife, Diane.



Hera Jane is a deaf thirteen year old student who is in her third year at the SPED (special education) class.  She is very good at copying words from the black board, but is progressing very slowly in learning sign language.  But like many of the deaf students, she is very good at drawing.  Her drawing won second prize in the poster making contest for the National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week Celebration.  Usually quite shy, she proudly stood for a picture of her holding her poster.

We are sponsoring the transportation of another new student at the Mambajao SPED. Christopher is eleven years old and has developmental delay. He can hear, but does not talk at all.  He had attended the school in his barrio for Kinder and then he stopped for five years.  His mother tried to enroll him again, but the teacher there said they should come see our nurse, Lea, for help to bring him to the Mambajao SPED class.

 Twenty month old Jacob had his bilateral cleft lip repaired in Cagayan de Oro at a private hospital that has a tie up with the organization SmileTrain.  So the surgery was free, but we helped with transportation, lodging, and food for the parents and the supplies and medicines needed after discharge, plus milk formula for the three week healing period when the patients have to have a liquid diet.  The lip healed well and he will need to go back for a palate repair in six months.

And why does Family to Family seek to help special needs children?



Tom Palmeri, co-founder of Family to Family with his wife Diane, writes about the big why.

“Some of them die, of course, but most survive.  And our reward at the end of the year is a vision of beauty that we ourselves have brought about.  A transformation of a shrivelled, apathetic, and sometimes terror-stricken human form into a healthy and happy toddler, tumbling in the grass and the sea, filled with laughter and joy.  I know of no better material in which to create beauty.  I know of no deeper satisfaction than the creation of it.  The condition in which the children come to us is the world’s doing.  What they become in our care is our own.”

In case you’re feeling generous funds or packages may be sent to Diane Palmeri, Family to Family Center, Mambajao 9100 Camiguin. In the Philippines packages can best   be sent by LBC care of Jesse Sagocsoc.