BIONIC MAN. Amputee Robby Malonzo, who is also a skilled maker of artificial legs, shocks his audience as he turns his leg 180 degrees. Kapampangan Development Foundation (KDF) trustee Sylvia Ordoñez (left) said Malonzo was one of the thousands who had received free prosthetic leg from KDF which has 200 more amputees in its waiting list.
PHOTO BY BONG LACSON
CLARK FREEPORT — An artificial leg for an amputee costs about $5,000, way beyond the means of poor folk.
But thousands of indigent amputees in Central Luzon had theirs for free, and at least 200 more of them are in the waiting list.
This is among the continuing concerns of the Kapampangan Development Foundation (KDF), chaired by businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, which established the Jesus A. Datu Medical Center, in Barangay San Vicente, Bacolor in Pampanga to provide free medical assistance to physically impaired poor folk.
The hospital is reputed to be the only charity hospital in the world catering mainly to persons with disability (PWD), said KDF trustee Sylvia Ordoñez. Ordoñez said Phil- Health has already accredited the hospital which now has doctors and equipment, mostly raised from donations, to treat indigents with three out of four basic disabilities.
“We have doctors and equipment to treat those with disability in vision, speech and mobility. We still are working on having a center for hearing disability which can be very expensive,” she noted. The Datu Hospital now also maintains a prosthesis center where trained workers make artificial legs for amputees.
“Materials for one artificial leg can cost as much as P15,000, apart from labor and other costs,” Ordoñez noted.
Since it was founded in 2007, the KDF has already provided free cataract surgeries for about 4,900 poor folk provided free optical service and eyeglasses to another 12,283. It has provided free surgeries to a total of 975 harelip patients in partnership with the Mother of Culcutta Medical Center and the Ospital ning Angeles.
Ordoñez also said that KDF chair Pangilinan has expressed support for the establishment of more birthing stations in Pampanga, amid statistics that the province has among the highest maternal death rate in Central Luzon.
“We want to establish 15 satellite birthing clinics by 2015 with funding assistance from the Philippine Long Distance Corp. and Smart Foundation for a zero maternal and infant mortality rate by 2015,” Ordoñez added.
Ordoñez said that beyond its health mission, KDF has already expended its concerns to provision of livelihood opportunities to Pampanga folk, noting that her foundation is now constructing another building in the Datu Hospital compound for a midwife training center.
She also said KDF has embarked on a project to encourage poor folk to plant fruit trees, with a target of one million fruit trees. “We have testimonies of families which were able to send their kids through college from income derived from only two fruit trees in their backyards,” she recalled.
Ordoñez also noted observations that lanzones fruits harvested from areas covered by lahar deposits from Mt. Pinatubo are even sweeter than the more well known harvests in Laguna.
