First Gentleman Foundation helps 15 more children

MANILA, Philippines – Fifteen more children from the poorest of the poor in various parts of the country have benefited from the hydrocephalus and meningocoele mission of the First Gentleman Foundation Inc. (FGFI) at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).

They are Raeven Mirasol, Miriam Amparo, Jen Bostante, Aevan Calpito, Trixia Puasan, Janica Yap, Jerome Agamos, Jeff Matias, Steven Limen, Cymetch Mecayer, Jona Abraham, Joshua Aguiller, Heimer Naling, Raniel Onte, and Andrew Tagapan.

With ages ranging from three months to four years, the beneficiaries were operated on Saturday at the PGH by a team of doctors led by Dr. Raymond Gagwis, chief resident, with Dr. Reynaldo Benedict Villamor Jr. as mission coordinator.

They had been suffering from congenital hydrocephalus, nasoethmoidal, cervical and lumbosacral meningocoele before they were chosen as the latest beneficiaries of the mission.

All the expenses for the operations were paid by the privately funded FGFI.

The latest beneficiaries comprise the 10th batch of indigent children who have benefited from the mission since the FGFI started it in 2004.

Including these children, a total of 239 children, most of them infants, have received free surgery from the FGFI’s hydrocephalus missions.

In 2008 alone, 31 poor children from different parts of the country were chosen for a mission.