Stories of Giving

About two months ago, I wrote an article here on Slice of Life about a B’laan tribal leader, volunteer, pastor and guide named Dodong Guk. Several months ago, he lost his teenage daughter to liver cirrhosis. Because of the expenses he incurred from his daughter’s hospitalization and medication, he has used up all available resources he had. He even sold his horses and carabaos and even the piece of land that he had. Only a few weeks after his daughter’s death, his wife also fell ill with liver cirrhosis. At that point, Dodong needed whatever help he could get from kind hearted groups or individuals who may be willing to help. In my own little way, I tried to help Dodong with his wife’s medication, by asking for financial assistance from my friends. Dodong was a selfless man, being able to help in the medical missions of Dr. Roel Cagape, in the mountains of Malapatan in Sarangani, as a volunteer and guide. He has helped a lot of people because of his volunteer work. But this time he needs help for his ailing wife.

When the story of Dodong Guk was published on Slice of Life in Davao Catholic Herald, one of my former students from Letran was able to read the story online. My former student, Connie Pintolo, now works at the corporate communications department of The Philippine Star newspaper. Since The Philippines Star was celebrating their 28th anniversary, it launched “#28StoriesOfGiving, a campaign that turns the spotlight on 28 inspiring stories of people and organizations – true-to-life accounts of individuals and groups who have devoted their lives to helping themselves or others; they are some of the unsung modern-day heroes worthy of recognition but also in need of assistance.” Connie asked me if they can feature the story of Dodong as one of the stories that will run as a series from July 1 to the 28th, 2014.

According to the newspaper’s feature about the campaign, “Though anchored on our print edition, this charitable venture will also leverage the power of social media in order to elicit participation from millions of Filipinos in online communities. Every netizen is encouraged to post or “tweet” a message of support for any of the 28 beneficiaries (whose heartrending narratives are to be featured on our front page) with the official hashtag, #28StoriesOfGiving.”

And so on July 2, 2014, The Philippine Star published the story of Dodong entitled “Dodong Guk: Travails of a tribal leader” by Michael Rebuyas. Apparently they were able to get in touch with Dodong in Sarangani, through his personal mobile phone to be able to interview him. A few days after his story was published on the newspaper, Dodong sent me a text message. He wanted to thank me for my referral about his story and the help he got after it was published. The Philippine Star sent him financial assistance and encouraged its readers to help Dodong by sending cash donations. One of those who were able to read the story was from a specialty clinic related to the ailment of Dodong’s wife. They have several branches in the country, and one of their clinics is in Davao City. The managing director of the clinic got in touch with Dodong and paved the way for them to be able to have a check-up and treatment in Davao City. It has been almost three months now that Dodong’s wife fell seriously ill. Once in a while I would receive a text message from him and he would tell me of his struggles in the difficult situation that he is in. I would run out of comforting words to tell him, since I know that words are not enough to alleviate their suffering.

I once told Dodong, in a text message I sent him, to hold on to his faith and that only God knows what is best for us. His reply was, “maybe God has better plans for me, I just hope and pray that He will give me the strength to overcome the trials that I am going through right now.”