by Abdel Hadi Malali Mohammad Isa, PHI ’10, edited by Team Scribe

Service that seeks no glory, one of the Four Pillars the Phi Kappa Mu stands for, has always been one of the fraternity’s top priorities. The Most Venerable Fraternity built its service arm, the Pagkalinga sa Kalusugan ng Mamayan or PagKalMa, on the foundation of shining the healing light of medicine to our fellow countrymen. For the whole month of August of 2011, the Phi Kappa Mu Fraternity dedicated its efforts to bringing service to the underserved with Buwan ng Pagkalma; celebrating 32 years of Service.

OPERATION BLOOD BROTHER

Nine out of ten Filipinos will need blood some time in their lives. Every moment someone in a hospital somewhere in this country needs blood to stay alive. It can be someone you know. It can be a mother giving birth, a father undergoing heart surgery, a daughter with life threatening anemia, a son fighting dengue fever or a friend bleeding from an accident. Blood is always needed, whether for accidents, for cancer or for surgery, every single day of the year. But blood cannot be made in the lab or in the factory. It cannot be grown on trees. It can only be given by volunteering donors. Only from life can life be given.

It is for this reason that the Most Venerable Fraternity of the U.P. College of Medicine, the Phi Kappa Mu, has been actively holding its blood-letting missions throughout the Metro. Operation Blood Brother actively seeks out among the populace noble individuals who are willing to give blood to save their fellow brother and sisters in need.

In celebration of the Buwan ng PagKalMa, Phi launched Operation Blood Brother in the College of Medicine and the College of Arts and Sciences in UP Manila last August 10 and 20 2011, respectively. With the active collaboration of the Brods and Sisses with the rest of the student body, Phi was able to obtain 30 units of blood in the College of Medicine and an additional 20 units of blood from the College of Arts and Sciences. The donated blood was given to the Blood Bank of the Philippine General Hospital for the benefit of the patients who were recovering there.

CORNEAL EYE DONATION

In celebration of 32 years of Service, bringing selfless service to our fellow Filipinos, this Buwan ng PagKalMa PHI partners with the Eye Bank Foundation of the Philippines (EBFP) in bringing light back into the eyes of people blinded with corneal diseases.

According to the President of the EBFP, Dr. Ma. Dominga B. Padilla, MD, “corneal blindness is one of the top four causes of blindness in the world. The situation in the Philippines is no different. This form of blindness may be caused by infections, accidents, congenital defects, surgical trauma, and many others. It may affect people of all ages from all walks of life.” Through its medical eye bank known as the Santa Lucia International Eye Bank of Manila (SLIEB), the EBFP has brought hope and renewed life to thousands of blind individuals through corneal transplants.

In line with the mission of the EBFP/SLIEB (or known simply as the Eye Bank), the Phi Kappa Mu through its service arm, PagKalMa has brought the Eye Bank’s initiative to the grounds of the UP College of Medicine (UPCM) with its recently concluded Cornea Donation Pledging last August 4, 2011. With the combined effort of the Phi Kappa Mu and the staff of the Eye Bank, students, faculty and staff of UPCM were educated with the current situation of cornea donation in the Philippines. Moreover, Phi and the Eye Bank were also able to commit 28 individuals to pledge their cornea for donation and be, as written in their noble donor card, a “hero in someone’s eyes”.

A small start but that which surely will go a long way, with Phi working hand in hand with the Eye Bank, the way to the future does seem a little clearer.

PROJECT HOPE: ORGAN DONATION

Don’t bring your organs to heaven. Heaven knows we need them here.

That is the plea that the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI) has been advocating all these years in the hope to inspire everyone to pledge for organ donation. But in a country where organ donors are not the norm, this task is easier said than done.

Everyday there are many Filipinos suffering from an end-stage organ disease patiently waiting for an organ donor in order to undergo transplantation. Time and time again patients wait tirelessly in vain for an organ that does not come as doctors grow impatient, though competently skilled to do the operation but rendered helpless with the lack of organs and viable tissues.

But to whose fault should this grim situation be pinned? Research shows that one of the major reasons of a lack of organ donors in the country is that many Filipinos are not aware of the process to be an organ donor. And many liken organ donation pledging as something similar to the many government registrations systems such as getting a driver’s license or a voter’s card, pages and pages of forms to fill up coupled with endless waiting in long lines.

But organ donation is a simple process. You don’t even need a donor card, all you need to do is tell the people closest to you that you wish to have your organs donated upon your death. The rest will carry itself. No long lines, no forms. Just a declaration of your altruism.

It is for those reasons that the Most Venerable Fraternity of the UP College of Medicine, the Phi Kappa Mu, has partnered with the NKTI’s Human Organ Preservation Effort (HOPE) in increasing awareness of organ donation to the general populace and promote many of them to start pledging for organ donation. In its celebration of its service arm’s month-long anniversary celebration, Buwan ng PagKalMa, the Phi Kappa Mu held an Organ Donation Pledging event at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine (UPCM) on August 4-5, 2011. With the combined effort of the Phi Kappa Mu and the NKTI staff, the students, faculty and staff of UPCM were engaged in discussions on organ donation to increase awareness of the plight of patients waiting for organ transplantation. Also, the Phi Kappa Mu and the staff of the NKTI were able to commit 45 noble individuals in pledging for organ donation.

Though these recent activities are still a far cry to actually having an organ up for transplant, the Phi Kappa Mu and the NKTI hope that the increase awareness of the people involved will spark a wave of change that someday might materialize to a better national sentiment on organ transplantation.

For more information or inquiries, you can contact the

Eye Bank Foundation of the Philippines

Telephone numbers 302-6282, 302-6286

Fax 302-6285

Mobile 09178935995

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Human Organ Preservation Effort

Tel No. 924-4673

Mobile 09175544545, 09179176675

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