'Project Tulong' turns over multi-million hospital equipment to Janiuay
Ms. Beverly "Pangging" Rosales Chaplin,
liason of the Association of Philippine
Physicians in America and the Laguna
and Friends Project Tulong, presents 4
dialysis machines to Janiuay Mayor
Bienvinido Margarico (R) and Federico
Roman Tirador Sr. Memorial District
Hospital Director, Dr. Roy Gigare (center)
part of the 15 million pesos worth of h
ospital equipment the US-based
physicians sent to this hospital that was
submerged 7 feet below water when
Typhoon Frank with its cascading waters
cover almost all of Iloilo and Panay.
Some P15 million worth of hospital equipment including four dialysis machines, 35 electronic hospital beds, 50 hospital mattresses, wheelchairs, surgical shoes and gowns and a portable X-Ray machine were turned over to Janiuay, Iloilo yesterday.
A private sector initiative, the multi-million turn-over was the result of an impromptu project dubbed "Project Tulong." Initiated by an Ilongga and later embraced by longtime friends and associates, a plea for help and action was made a day after Typhoon Frank devastated Iloilo in June.
One e-mail was all it took for Beverly "Pangging" Rosales-Chaplin, scion of one of Iloilo's illustrious and loved families. In asking for help, she asked that financial donations be coursed through The News Today (TNT). Within days, help did arrive in the form of offers for hospital equipment.
"I am just an ordinary person… I realized that I had to have a life with significance and real purpose. I was moved to help to be an instrument for people to live their life with dignity, integrity and noble purpose for them to have a better future. I wanted to make a difference in the simplest way I could," Chaplin said.
The "simplest" way was translated yesterday into a big event in Janiuay particulary at the Federico Roman Tirador Sr. Memorial District Hospital in Barangay Jibolo, Janiuay, Iloilo.
Witnessed by hospital staff headed by Dr. Noel Roy Gigare, town officials led by Mayor Ben Margarico and locals in the area, boxes after boxes were unloaded from the 15-footer container van.
The mood was both emotional and festive as Dr. Gigare revisited the day floodwaters threatened the lives of some 70 people in the hospital.
Emergency room nurse Alfredo Salarda Jr. was one of the silent heroes who risked his life and led the rescue of at least 25 patients. Head nurse Martha Suarez was another who likewise risked her life. She refused to leave making her then the last person to vacate the hospital with a dying patient.
Chaplin in turning over the "Project Tulong" donation said she never hesitated to pick the hospital as beneficiary of the group's assistance.
"You have been given this day to use these medical equipment as you will… What you will do with it is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it," she said while adding, "Let us search for the hero inside our hearts….The purpose of life is to matter, to count, to stand for something and to make a difference that in one way or another we were able to live."
"Project Tulong" donation was made by the Association of Philippine Physicians in America through its president, Francis Talangbayan M.D., and wife Christy. The effort was made through the Laguna and Friends Inc. led by president Nimia Lacebal and Angeles Flores, M.D., chair of the Charity Affairs.
"Project Tulong" was also realized in association with the Philippine Communities of Northeast USA and the Federation of the Philippine Societies in New Jersey through its president, Dan de Guzman. It was also through the cooperation with the Philippine Consulate General in New York, Consul General Cecilia Rebond and Deputy Consul General Melita Thomeczek.
Mayor Margarico in her message thanked the group particularly Chaplin saying no words is enough to express the town's gratitude for the donation realized.
Also present yesterday was Badiangan Mayor Suzette Mamon and "Project Tulong's" Norma Rosales, Sara Pena and former Science and Technology Regional Director Zinnia Teruel.