Life Changing Care for Disabled Filipino Children

Greetings from the Central Visayas Philippines.

It's been a long road since the pandemic put our primary ministry on the sidelines since early 2020.  We are very excited to share with you that we are back on track and planning to take a new group of children for treatment in early June.

In April, with the assistance of our primary partners, Tebow Cure Hospital and Little Children of the Philippines, we held a clinic to evaluate children for treatment of various disorders.  We evaluated 34 children, many of which we have had on our list since 2019.  Of the 34 children, we identified 27 children for travel and treatment in Davao.  We are currently working with LCP to finalize travel for the first four or five children and we expect to leave for Davao on Monday, June 5th.

This trip will differ significantly from our previous surgical trips primarily due the the change in treatment for clubfoot disorder.  We used to be able to bring children in on a Monday and immediately admit them in the hospital.  They would then have surgery and be casted on Tuesday or Wednesday and be released on Friday for travel back home.  New treatment protocol now require these patients to undergo a series of pre-surgical casting over a 4-8 week time period before surgery.  So now our patients have to be housed and remain in Davao for up to two months.  While this puts a tremendous stress on the child's family, it also puts additional financial burden on our ministry as we can't plan the return trip in advance.  We will use this trip to establish a new cost basis for future trips.

As always, we are deeply appreciative to all our donors who make it possible for these children to receive this life changing care!