Friday, December 14, 2007 Maharlika Foundation: Giving needs of the poor By Jojie Alcantara Witerary
THE Maharlika Charity Foundation, Inc. (MCFI), a non-stock, non-profit charity foundation which renders services to the marginalized and indigenous Filipinos, was founded in 1973 and has been continuously serving the needs of the indigents and marginalized patients with visual impairment, cleft lip and other congenital disabilities.
The Foundation derives its support from minimal foreign funding, existing wholly by donations from individual benefactors, companies, fund-raising drives, government charity agencies, foreign contributions, and even token monies from ordinary people.
It operates as an ambulatory surgery center, cerebral palsy and hearing disability rehabilitation clinic in its own building, the Maharlika Center in Davao City, and is now a modern medical facility manned by well-trained volunteer medical teams.
Programs include Opthalmologic Surgery Program (Cataract and squint surgery, pterygium); Plastic/Reconstructive Surgery Program (cleft lip/palate surgery and burn surgery).
The following are done with the Mindanao Burn Center-Davao Medical Center: Dental Services Program (preventive dentistry, oral surgery, restorative dentistry, orthodontics); General Surgery; Ear Clinic (audiometery and hearing aid provision); Pediatric Rehabilitation Center (caters to children with developmental delay, autism, disabilities); Education (Training ambulatory care nurses and OR technicians); and Mindanao-wide Surgeons Network for Trauma and Mass Casualties.
One of the foundation's visions is to hold outreach surgical missions to areas where specialized medical/surgical services are unavailable to reach the indigent segment of the population, and to promote a replicable alternative to health care services delivery which is cost-effective and would benefit a large segment of the population.
Composed of volunteer medical specialists and healthcare providers who gave their time and travel to the remotest areas in Mindanao, the mission is conducted in government buildings, sports stadiums, classrooms converted to makeshift operating and recovery rooms without sacrificing standards of sterility, safety, and quality of surgery.
Volunteers' scrub suits, linens, surgical drapes and patients' gowns are made from recycled flour sacks. Since then thousands of poor, disabled patients, burn victims, those suffering from eye defects, congenital anomalies, and other diseases were treated free by some of Davao 's best medical and dental specialists.
Two of its recent projects, "Misyon Dapitan" (Zamboanga del Norte) and "Misyon Mlang" (Cotabato), were specialized and rehabilitative surgical missions conducted for the needs of the visually disable and cosmetically disfigured indigents who have no access to urban center facilities for treatment.
A total of 1,468 patients on both missions were operated on with the help of more than 90 medical and non-medical volunteers, headed by the Foundation president Dr. Rizal Aportadera.
The MCFI Mobile Operating Theater Van was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Ireneo Ansaldo with the help of friends who donated cash to cover the cost of labor and materials. The son, Alex Ansaldo, executed the van's design to conform to world class standards.
Local civic organizations like the Rotary Clubs of Mindanao (Rotary Club of Davao 2000 and Rotary East Davao) augment the needs for medical supplies and eye lenses and have assisted in networking with the Rotary Clubs in Japan who donated funds for the acquisition of equipment for the Mobile Operating Van.
This year, Maharlika continues to perform modern medical miracles on these less fortunate people, giving hope and light in their lives. It has in fact, successfully conformed to the foundation's mission, "to inculcate into its medical staff, nurses and employees the philosophy of rendering the best services responsive to the needs of patients without expecting anything in return".
(For more information about scheduled missions, visit http://www.maharlikafoundation.org. React to witty@info.com.ph or browse website www.witerary.com.)
