OURLIFE.NOV.09

Click the link above to see the full newsletter from Our Life Outreach recent Projects!

You’ll read about:

–The UYC Flood Rescue Team (Report by Zella, 15)

–The New Volunteers who have joined us at PGH

–The Pedia-Palaro Foundation Day at PGH

–and the Prisoners’ Awareness Week!

…have fun!

As you know, this last month has brought many natural disasters to Southeast Asia, the Philippines being at the top of the list for relentless, damaging typhoons. Our young volunteers from UYC were busy in the aftermath of Ketsana with donated relief goods, helping to distribute the packages to flood victims.

To view the photos, go to http://ourlifeoutreach.multiply.com/photos/album/30/United_Youth_Club_Rescue_Team

THE MARTINEZ SISTERS: DANCE FOR A CAUSE

 The Martinez Sisters are a family act; a professional dance group performing all year round, in aid of outreach programs and social consciousness awareness. This Christmas, their upbeat dance numbers and lively choreography will bring life to any seasonal event!

Past performances include venues like the Muntinlupa Bilbid Prison, the Manila PGH (Philippine General Hospital), and the Mad Dogs Annual Toy Run for Orphans in Handlebar, Makati.

Book now for your corporate Christmas party or local outreach event.

Contact: Joy Martinez 0916-171-3838 or 0915-314-1689

email: brodanny_joy@yahoo.com

This month, our volunteers at the Pedia Ward were the boss and employees of VIRJEN Shipping Corporation.  About 15 came to celebrate their company’s yearly anniversary by packaging and giving away food, toys, gifts, vitamins, diapers and milk to 100 little patients.

Our special thanks to volunteers and donors: Erica Feliz Marquez-Jacinto, Pearl Punzalan, Ernie Fuerte, Hannah Grace Samson, Yza Enverga, Rochelle Robles, Catherine Santos,  Annalyn Monsanto, Jennylyn Almazan, and Gladys Aragon

If you or your company would like to contribute to the patients of PGH Pedia Ward, please contact us to coordinate your schedules for an outreach program. We handle the processing of hospital passes and permits, clearing your schedule with the doctors and nurses in charge, arranging rooms for your staff, and can assist you in whatever way you need.

God bless you!

(For the complete photo album of this event, please go to www.ourlifeoutreach.multiply.com )

OURLIFE.JUNE09 is our latest update newsletter from activities here at Our Life Outreach. Have a read

Click this link to see the Newsletter!

PGH Pedia Ward gets help from new friends, Horacio and Tita Anna!

 PGH Ward 9, May 21st, 3pm.

New sponsors Horatio and Tita Anna assisted us in bringing donated goods for 50 patients. The gifts included diapers, clothing, alcohol, cotton, food, and inspirational literature for the children’s parents. The  Martinez kids, Jozen, Mandy, Angela and Zella helped with the folding, organizing and packing of the goods for this project. Cielo, Nina and Joy organized the ward visitation, also distributing enough Krispy Kreme donuts for the hospital staff and nurses.

This project is part of our monthly donation-distributions for ill children at PGH hospital. Please keep reading to find out how you can facilitate the outreach and help us to serve others.

Can YOU Sponsor giveaways at the PGH Pedia Ward?

To continue this monthly program, all we need is 12 sponsors a year, each one to commit to one day a month . The more friends help out, the more visits we can make. You can put together some gifts to give away  as a unique way to celebrate your birthday, or to simply do something extraordinary on an ordinary day!

Let us know, and we’ll get you started.

Five of our kids: Nina (16), Zella (14), Mandy (13), Angela (12), and Jozen (9) now  attend and help organize a free youth club in the Philippines.

The members of this club are preteens and teenagers, who, with their youthful energy, organized a free club for other kids to have fun, learn, grow in faith, and inspire each other to make a positive difference in their world!

The kids and teens learn about decision-making, relationships with others, public relations, cooperativeness, social skills, team-work, values and the like; they organize community projects together and hold their own meetings in their own specially-designed club-room.

 Environmental projects like tree planting are in the works; sports activities are a regular part of the weekly gatherings; united efforts to help the less fortunate in their local community are organized by the Club. And faith-building, motivational classes are taught alternately by the kids themselves.

For updates and information on UYC “United Youth Club”, log on to http://uyc-manila.blogspot.com. Here, you’ll find stories, pictures and fun stuff from the teens to enjoy.

A couple months ago, the Nomads Bulettes held an art exhibition entitled “Touch and Soul”, which featured some of the country’s best painters, including BenCab and Hermes Allegre. Just before Valentines Day 2009, the girls used part of the funds raised to do an Outreach Program with us in PGH, in benefit of the Pediatric Ward patients, who numbered nearly 50 in the ward.

We’ll let Clair Barberis tell her account of that memorable day, when we all learned about love’s true value, and the joy of giving.

(By Clair Concepcion-Barberis, Nomads Bulettes Rugby Team Player, FunDayTion Organizer/Volunteer):

Recently, with every cup of morning coffee, one has faced a cramped newspaper page of tumbling figures and a video stream of very bad, very real war vignettes. Just when you think that last night’s breaking news was shocking enough, in comes another one equipped with enough potency to make your jaw drop through the floor, again.

This is approximately the time you decide there is no point in making sense of this all. Then your children walk in and give you the most loving and unaffected kiss in the whole wide world and deliver a beautifully crafted pre-valentine card made during their recreational class. Now this puts your views back into perspective.

On February 12, 2009, through the help of  missionaries Nikki Martinez of FunDayTion (Our Life Outreach), her mother Joy and her two beautiful and talented daughters, Nina and Angela, I accompanied a number of the Bullettes to Wards 9 and 11of the PGH Pediatric Cancer Ward.

Before entering the wards, Joy gathered us around and gently warned us, “Please be strong and prepare yourselves in the event a child passes away during our visit.” Apparently, three childred had passed away the last time Joy and Nikki were there.  What do you do with that information?? Suck it up and hope for the best.

The experience was, to say the least, heart wrenching. All we wanted to do was to give everything we had, hope to say something positive or even remotely funny and do everything in our power to make these children’s lives less painful and their parent’s lives less sorrowful. In our very own small way, we provided a couple of hours of distraction by distributing diapers, face towels, cotton buds, alcohol, clothes and food to the patients and parents.

At once, we realized that what we thought of hours ago as plentiful was now frustratingly meager as supplies were simply not enough. When supplies ran out, we became the next supply – and supplied some laughs, conversation and hope to some that looked forward to our next visit. Hopefully, by then, they would have checked out. Well, one sort of checked out – a one day old baby wrapped in cling wrap wasn’t so lucky — or probably is.

We stepped out as the sight was too much for any of us to bear and we could only imagine the scene of the father arriving a tad too late with medicines in tow. This puts everything we once thought of as valuable right into the material trash bin – and life back into perspective.

The funds that have been raised during the Touch and Soul Charity Art Exhibit and Sale will be used for another PGH Charity Day sometime in June and will also be used to purchase school and art supplies for the street children of Les Oursin.

Should you wish to donate or volunteer for either project, please contact Clair +63 918 906 8332 or ccbarberis@gmail.com. For more inquiries about FunDayTion projects, contact Nikki or Joy Martinez, for Our Life Outreach. 0915-881-2478.

(Note from Joy Martinez):

The hospital visitation program is something we organize for sponsors wanting to have hands-on experience with those they are helping. We arranged the pediatric ward visitation for the Nomads girls to do volunteer work and the Lord helped everything to work out for the best. With some proceeds from their art exhibition, they were able to buy diapers, food and goods for the patients.

They took the time right there to distribute and check for the kids sizes for diapers and clothing, scoop up the food into the plates and be servers to all . They would personally go back and forth to the hall where the stuff was and then back to the beds to give it out. They were really enjoying it and getting involved, showing sincere concern for each patient and parent, making sure that each got what they actually needed. Each volunteer was really touched that day.

Below are pictures from the event. Thanks again for taking the time to view our updates on this site. God bless you!  

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day with your loved ones and/or special someone!

This year, we participated in the Valentines Day Singing Contest in Bilibid Prison, Muntinlupa! Each contestant was required to sing a duet with a female vocalist from outside. It was good fun in the classic Filipino tradition of celebrating with music.

If you recall, last year we had our Valentines party at PGH together with the PETA Theater Group, Kitchie Nadal, and friends from the Mad Dogs Motorcycle Club in Manila. It was a day to remember.

Here’s a picture from Valentines, 2008.

Remember that LOVE is ALWAYS worth your time!