Unconditional Love: Celica “Tita Nurse” Sevilla

In mid-2007 I had just finished my training at the World City Medical Center and dreamed of working for the best hospitals in Manila. I read an ad in the Manila Bulletin about an urgent need for a nurse and a midwife in Coron, Palawan, twelve hours away from my dream location by boat. I applied for both positions at Children’s Chance for Tomorrow Foundation and was immediately hired.

At first I was a little scared because CCFT seemed so far from town, but was pleasantly surprised at the beautiful facilities once I entered the gates. My first week in CCFT was an exciting experience for me: everything was new, and the setup was quite unusual because I was trained in a hospital and this was the first time I was to perform my duty within an institution, and a foundation for orphaned and abandoned children at that.

When I arrived, the clinic was well-stocked with medical supplies, medicines for the children, its own oxygen tank, laboratory equipment, vaccines, and basic first aid supplies. CCFT is very fortunate to have complete medical facilities, enough for a mini-hospital. Whenever I need a doctor, the Coron District Hospital was only fifteen minutes away. And it takes only one phone call to consult with Dr. Viene Saulog, a pediatrician at Asian Hospital in Manila.

Time came when I missed the hustle and bustle of the city that I was used to. I missed my family and friends back in Manila and my hometown Tabaco, Albay. I longed to go to a mall, and to my usual hang-outs, and eat familiar food. I was homesick and prayed often to God, asking if I really belonged to this job.

Meanwhile, I kept myself busy with caring for the children. I assisted the Rural Health Unit when they started immunizing the children in July 2007, comforting the children who were frightened of needles. I oversaw their vitamin intake and monitored their growth in weight and height. There were difficult times when there would be several children confined in the clinic at once and I would be up to my neck in work.

Through the months of bandaging scrapes and cuts, taking temperatures, and caring for the frail infants, I grew to love my work despite the initial loneliness. The children and I became good friends, and they learned to trust me not just as their nurse but as a confidante. A simple “I love you”, “I miss you”, “thank you”, “how are you”, and even a little smile on their faces gives me strength and makes me forget the worries of the day.

Little by little, I have learned God’s purpose why he brought me here. He opened the way for me to experience the best in life, not in a high-class Manila hospital, but in a Children’s Home in Coron, sharing unconditional love to others. I now dream that one day, the clinic will be an independent children’s clinic with its own doctor and complete medical facilities and staff to care for children.

Soon, I will be a mother, and I want my own child to experience the same real love that I learned to give the children of CCFT. Being with these children has taught me that every individual has the right to live, to be loved, and to have a family that will accept them for who they are. It is comforting to know that even if these children’s families have abandoned them, God still values and loves them. I myself have found my family in CCFT, and being here has been the best experience I ever had in my whole life!