President Rodrigo Duterte delivered his holiday cheers to the patients at the House of Hope and Children’s Cancer and Blood Diseases Units (CCBDU) of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) on Christmas Eve.
It is the President’s way of gift giving to children annually, and that Duterte never misses spending Christmas with them even when he was still the mayor of Davao as to provide pure joy to the patients with toys and medications while their treatment is ongoing. He also gave food packs to the patients’ watchers.
The House of Hope and CCBDU were always part of his visits and beneficiaries every Christmas or on simple days to find comfort with them by providing toys to the kids by playing and hugging them.
Duterte would also pray for the patients’ healing aside from providing them financial assistance or help raise funds for the children wards, mostly of low-income families from Davao City and the neighboring provinces.
House of Hope is a temporary home of for children with cancer through a project that was established in August 2007 with the help of the City Government, Rotary Club of Waling-Waling Davao, and the Davao Children’s Cancer Fund Inc.
The facility has already served hundreds of children mostly were diagnosed with leukemia or cancer of the blood; while some suffer cancer of the eye, bone, and muscle.
The President on Christmas Eve also gave a house in a village near SPMC to serve as temporary quarters for the family members and patients to avoid convenience when they have to stay for check-up and medication or when patients are still recovering.
The new home named as ‘Margarita house’ will serve as SPMC’s extension of the cancer ward where children who lost their limbs would practice using their newly-installed prosthetics.
Chief Oncologist Dr. Mae Dolendo and SPMC Chief of Hospital Dr. Leopoldo Vega joined the President during his round at the cancer wards.
SPMC is a government-owned hospital administered under the Department of Health. The facility was established way back in 1917 as a 25-bed capacity hospital but now has grown to accommodate thousands of patients.
