HOME for the aged Kanlungan ni Maria rolled out a new-brand outreach program in three hospitals in Metro Manila on February 21, benefiting over 200 indigent senior and child patients.
This time, the home for the aged gifted its beneficiaries with a grocery package each, its way of sharing the blessings its residents receive from benefactors.
Known as “Aba Muna Bago Ako (Amba),” the outreach gave gift packs to patients in Quirino Memorial Medical Center Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center, and the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Medical Center, said Victoria Baterina-Solis, Kanlungan ni Maria special projects director.
No less than 100 gift packs were given to kids and 150 to elderly patients, she said.
Each package for seniors contained adult diapers, tissue papers, soaps, toothpastes, biscuits, milk and powdered chocolate drink, said Fr. Dari Dioquino, Kanlungan ni Maria director.
Except for adult diapers, the children also received the same grocery items, he said.
Kanlungan ni Maria will also take to its home in Antipolo an elderly woman who has been staying as a patient at the Quirino Memorial Medical Center for over a year now, Dioquino said.
No one was picking up the woman from the hospital, said Mary Jean Netario Cruz, Kanlungan ni Maria wellness director.
The woman was clinging to Baterina-Solis as if she knew she was coming to her new home in Antipolo already, she said.
She might be taken to Kanlungan ni Maria on Tuesday after proper documentation, Netario Cruz said.
Amba conducted the visit and gift-giving to the patients in the three hospitals duly coordinated with their respective social services departments, she said.
The Amba rollout also visited and gave gifts to Franciscan priests and nuns at a Dominican monastery, both in Rizal province, Baterina-Solis said.
The outreach program will also visit hospitals in Manila and a home for the aged in Carmona, Cavite, she said.
Dioquino, Netario Cruz, Baterina-Solis, Maria Kristen I. Domingo, Karima Dimzon, John Robert I. Gascon, and Mark Andrew Tumpang composed Kanlungan ni Maria’s Amba rollout team.
Kanlungan ni Maria’s over 20 resident elderly in Antipolo have been well-provided for during the past 10 years.
Amba is a project seeking to share with other less fortunate senior citizens and children the blessings its occupants receive, Dioquino said.
Aside from the Amba outreach program, Kanlungan ni Maria conducts magnesium pain-healing missions for indigent seniors and other age groups across the country, so far benefitting over 600 people.