Helping Hands Healing Hearts is a ministry for sick and dying Filipino children and their families. We work in a local city government run hospital in Olongapo City providing medicines, financial assistance for laboratories, X rays, Ct Scans etc and we offer counseling for families in turmoil. Of course with every family we encounter we pray with them and we share the love of our Savior with them. Hence the name, Helping Hands (the practical), Healing Hearts (the spiritual). We are accountable and regulated by the local Department of Social Welfare (DSWD) and by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Our accounts are audited by certified accountants and presented yearly for inspection. We believe in excellence.
Here in the Philippines you have to pay for everything you’ll need in hospital. The needle, the oxygen, the use of the nebulizer, the very tape that sticks the bandage to your hand! It’s a nightmare for families who earn pittance, when their child gets sick. Its common here to see children die of simple things like dehydration, measles, pneumonia etc and it is very difficult for their families to allow this to happen but they have absolutely no choice unless they can ‘beg, steal or borrow’ the money to help their child. Many cant and therefore, many children die unnecessarily. Parents often have to ignore the advice of the doctors because they can’t afford to buy the medicine being requested. They can’t even afford the xray or blood test to find out what is wrong with their child. Diabetes, Dehydration, Measles and even badly broken bones can be terminal here because of the lack of medicines available to families.
We noticed that many of the kids we were helping to recover in hospital were coming back weeks later in worse condition than when they were discharged. We realized that it was because when they got home, their families had already exhausted all their resources and had no money left to buy the remaining ‘take home’ medications and the milk and nutritious food needed to build up their sick child back to full health. In response we decided to open a Children’s Recovery Unit in Olongapo City. After about 6 months of fundraising, the Lord provided and we were able to secure enough to buy a big house that would hold up to 23 children. It has become a place of hope, a place to heal. Our recovery unit takes in approximately 15 children at a time but we have had as many as 23 at once. It acts as a half way house between hospital and home. The kids get a chance to recover properly at their own pace and of course everything they need is provided for them by the ministry. We take the time to develop the children physically, emotionally and spiritually. The families also come twice a week to visit their kids and be encouraged by the Word of God. Just Last year 2009 we finally opened our second recovery Unit but this time it is in Baguio City.
Claire came to the Philippines in 1998 aged 23 to be a houseparent for another local mission and there she learned all about the culture and life in the Mission Field. Because she was working in an orphanage she was usually the one to bring the kids who got sick to the hospital and that’s where she saw the need within the hospital for a mission. So she began this ministry in 2001 in response to that need and we continue because the need continues. We have saved hundreds of children’s lives and in turn, we have rescued families from heartbreak and bereavement. How? We heeded the call of Jesus to care for the dying and to minister to the sick!
