Mga kapatid, allow me to post this very important letter from my kababayan. Please lets help her. God will pay you back. Salamat.
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Her name is Ronna.
She was an active English Majors Society member and a really attentive student. But she would rush off every after class because she had to stand behind the college canteen counter and help out Na Azum with the puto and the lumpia.
This is how I will always remember Ronna --the tall, pretty, shy girl who was very determined to finish her BSEd-English program; the Engmasoc member who was always there in every activity despite her wicked working-student hours. The girl who had always been there to help out with just about everything. She finished, passed the board, became a teacher...of course.
And now she needs help.
Some 7 months ago, she gave birth to her first girl. Soon after, Freah Kirstin, Ronna’s baby, was confined in the Philippine General Hospital and diagnosed to be suffering from a decompensated liver disease secondary to “extrahepatic biliary atresia.” The painful bottom line is: the baby has to have a liver transplant the soonest time—her only mode of treatment for long term survival. Without this operation, which costs 4 million pesos, the baby will die.
The sum of her husband’s income and Ronna’s salary as a public school teacher in Las Piñas is barely sufficient for the baby’s medications let alone the 4M-outside-the-country operation. The thought of it, for middle-class salary earners, is just impossible.
But what mother will let her baby go without fighting?
Ronna, as is her nature, could not—would not take this sitting down. She approached each and every agency that could help her baby. One such agency pledged 1M, another one pledged another amount until the almost-impossible operation is now just within reach.
I have with me copies of Ronna’s papers from the Dept. of Pediatrics, PGH and from the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Las Piñas. She sent them to me along with pictures of Freah Kirstin and a plea for compassion to her Engmasoc family.
This is one of ours. This is someone who helped make our group what it is today. And even if she weren’t, she is a mother, a parent —member of that society which most of us (if we’re blessed enough) will become a part of (if not already).
Please let’s help make the impossible possible for Ronna and the baby she loves and is fighting for. It need not be a huge amount. 20 pesos, 30, 50, a hundred… taken all together will go far in giving Freah Kirstin a future, and in giving Rona the much-needed encouraging voice to tell her she’s not alone, that her Engmasoc family is still with her.
I can’t remember if we ever read Italo Calvino’s “The Man Who Shouted Teresa” in class. In that story, a man kept yelling a name at a house. Those who passed and saw him stayed and shouted with him so he might be heard and the door be opened to him. This went on until they were quite a group shouting that one name. I don’t have to finish this tale because as an English major, you know what it means.
Kindly repost this letter, reword this to reach others who are not Engmasoc members but who you know are willing to help. You may contact Rona directly through:
raine_sas@yahoo.com
0929-5676143/0910-2796199
or
Mrs. Ronna Marie Sas-Pagaran
B2 L30 Crystal St., Golden Acres Subd.,
Las Piñas City, Metro Manila
Or send help through Metrobank account number: 218-3-21820447-4
Account name: Ronna Marie Sas Pagaran
ITF Freah Kirstin Sas Pagaran
Please...
-------------
Her name is Ronna.
She was an active English Majors Society member and a really attentive student. But she would rush off every after class because she had to stand behind the college canteen counter and help out Na Azum with the puto and the lumpia.
This is how I will always remember Ronna --the tall, pretty, shy girl who was very determined to finish her BSEd-English program; the Engmasoc member who was always there in every activity despite her wicked working-student hours. The girl who had always been there to help out with just about everything. She finished, passed the board, became a teacher...of course.
And now she needs help.
Some 7 months ago, she gave birth to her first girl. Soon after, Freah Kirstin, Ronna’s baby, was confined in the Philippine General Hospital and diagnosed to be suffering from a decompensated liver disease secondary to “extrahepatic biliary atresia.” The painful bottom line is: the baby has to have a liver transplant the soonest time—her only mode of treatment for long term survival. Without this operation, which costs 4 million pesos, the baby will die.
The sum of her husband’s income and Ronna’s salary as a public school teacher in Las Piñas is barely sufficient for the baby’s medications let alone the 4M-outside-the-country operation. The thought of it, for middle-class salary earners, is just impossible.
But what mother will let her baby go without fighting?
Ronna, as is her nature, could not—would not take this sitting down. She approached each and every agency that could help her baby. One such agency pledged 1M, another one pledged another amount until the almost-impossible operation is now just within reach.
I have with me copies of Ronna’s papers from the Dept. of Pediatrics, PGH and from the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Las Piñas. She sent them to me along with pictures of Freah Kirstin and a plea for compassion to her Engmasoc family.
This is one of ours. This is someone who helped make our group what it is today. And even if she weren’t, she is a mother, a parent —member of that society which most of us (if we’re blessed enough) will become a part of (if not already).
Please let’s help make the impossible possible for Ronna and the baby she loves and is fighting for. It need not be a huge amount. 20 pesos, 30, 50, a hundred… taken all together will go far in giving Freah Kirstin a future, and in giving Rona the much-needed encouraging voice to tell her she’s not alone, that her Engmasoc family is still with her.
I can’t remember if we ever read Italo Calvino’s “The Man Who Shouted Teresa” in class. In that story, a man kept yelling a name at a house. Those who passed and saw him stayed and shouted with him so he might be heard and the door be opened to him. This went on until they were quite a group shouting that one name. I don’t have to finish this tale because as an English major, you know what it means.
Kindly repost this letter, reword this to reach others who are not Engmasoc members but who you know are willing to help. You may contact Rona directly through:
raine_sas@yahoo.com
0929-5676143/0910-2796199
or
Mrs. Ronna Marie Sas-Pagaran
B2 L30 Crystal St., Golden Acres Subd.,
Las Piñas City, Metro Manila
Or send help through Metrobank account number: 218-3-21820447-4
Account name: Ronna Marie Sas Pagaran
ITF Freah Kirstin Sas Pagaran
Please...
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