BAHAY ARUGA

 Our De La Salle University  (DLSU)  Master of  Business Administration (MBA) Class – BUS560M Team’s unanimous choice for our Service Learning (SL) Project  is  Bahay Aruga.  It is a  half-way house for pediatric cancer patients who are far away from home.

Bahay Aruga was established on January 31, 2014 by Ms. Mayette Bonilla, Founder and President. It is located at  1131 San Marcelino St., Ermita, Manila. Since its founding, Ms. Bonilla has  dedicated  her life  to the care and support for children who are fighting cancer. Her  simple prayer  is  for the  children’s cancer to get healed and  for them to live a normal life again.  Her purpose is to provide free accommodations and food for these  pediatric patients  while they are undergoing  treatments. 

 At Bahay Aruga,  Ms. Bonilla only accepts children who are referred to her by the  Pediatric Oncologist doctors  from the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) Cancer Institute in Manila.  This house is only a few minutes walk or is just  a one ride away  from the PGH. The families  come from  different provinces in the Philippines and when they get to Manila, they don’t have a place to stay.  Lucky for those who have relatives and friends in Manila where they can stay for the meantime that the patient is undergoing treatment. But for those  who are not as lucky, then, Bahay Aruga is a home away from home place for them.

 

These children patients can be accompanied by one parent or guardian for the duration of their out- patient  treatments and medications  from the  PGH.   They can stay at the Bahay Aruga  and save their money for more important medical expenses as everything is not free at PGH. Even radiation  therapies  and laboratories all come with a fee.  Thus, staying at this house  is a big help to all patients and parents considering that they also have to purchase medicines and medical supplies during the various related treatments.  There are also other provisions at this house such as free bed per patient,  complimentary  light and water, diapers, medical supplies, donation of toiletries, food and other stuff.

Through the Bahay Aruga’s Facebook account, there a lot of  companies, associations, civic organizations,   private and public  personalities, hospitals, schools  and other kind hearted people and institutions who helped the patients and their families through the conduct of their  outreach programs. There are also lucky patients who were able to get sponsors to assist  them with their treatments and these helped them a lot.

 

Our BUS560M Group’s decision to help Bahay Aruga was brought about by one member who was able to carry out a community service event at this house before and also due to the current and past personal experiences of our  two other members. One member’s husband is currently undergoing chemotherapy for his brain cancer, while another member had an ovarian cancer at age 19, had one of her ovaries removed and was encouraged by the doctor to marry already and have a baby.   However, since she was very young at that age to bear a child, she rested and  tried her best to recover after  the surgery.  Now, she’s 26 years old already and good thing the cancer has healed and has not returned. Thus, our choice of Bahay Aruga as our Service Learning Project was really one closest to our group’s heart.

In the photo from left to right: Zyrine Joy Rosales, Anne Silva and Marichu Laroga

I was one of the three  volunteer members  from our group of nine,  who  joined our two other available members, i.e., Marichu  and Zyrine to do an ocular and site visit of this facility in San Marcelino, Manila on June 6, 2017. It was a Tuesday, so I took a leave of absence from work in order for me to accompany my group mates. I was really interested in Bahay Aruga  as this was my first time to visit a facility for pediatric cancer patients.

In the past, I have already experienced  joining   two  medical missions and feeding programs of the Lions Club and Philippine Air Force in a  depressed barangay in Cavite City; an outreach whole day activities  at the  Chosen Children Village Foundation  in Silang, Cavite,  a home for physically and mentally  challenged children and at   Elsie Gaches Village, Muntinlupa City,  a refuge for children with special needs;

Photo taken during our site visit at Bahay Aruga. From lef to right: Ms. Mayer Bonilla, President and Founder of Bahay Aruga,  Marichu Loraga, Anne Silva and Zyrine Joy Rosales

We were able to have a meeting with   Ms. Bonilla and she  advised  us  that she prefers  cash donations. However,  we informed her that we are just students and our purpose is to help cheer up and inspire the kids to be more brave in their fight with cancer.

Understanding our position on this matter, Ms. Bonilla then  suggested  for our group to  conduct a gardening activity and  help her create a vertical garden. Our team can interact with the children  and plant herbs and vegetable which they  can grow with their parents and  harvest later on to be used in cooking for their daily food at the house.

Ms. Bonilla also suggested for us to host a birthday activity for the June and July celebrants  with games, prizes and simple healthy food for the kids and their parents. She said that fast foods,  hot dogs, chocolates, food with preservatives are not allowed. So we agreed on her suggestions and set June 25, 2017  as the date of our activity.

We then informed our group mates  through our Facebook group page about the suggested activities of Ms. Bonilla. We also met several times before and after our classes just to finalize our groupings, respective assignments, amount of contributions will be at P500.00 per person which was   the suggested amount of our BUS560M Professor,  Ms. Pia Manalastas for this project.

We were all excited and  looking  forward to the execution of our planned activities for the pediatric patients of Bahay Aruga.  We all want to see and meet them in person as we want to share our  care, love and  blessings to them in our own small and humble way.