Tahan-tahanan (Home Away from Home)

PHILIPPINES | Sunday, 13 January 2013 | Views [1333] | View Smaller Image

Patients playing with the toy MRI machine, a gift from one of the donors to familiarize the kids with medical equipment. Play-therapy with hospital-inspired toys eases the anxiety every time they undergo treatments. Although its location is a bit dark and somber (the basement level of the East Avenue Medical Center), the atmosphere instantly changes whenever you see kids running around laughing.

Mitch (not his real name), another leukemia patient, plays telephone cups with a volunteer, during one of the regular play-therapy activities in Tahan-tahanan. The center relies substantially on support from foundations and charities, as well as volunteers who become members of the staff. According to the World Bank, healthcare in the Philippines is still troublesome, with only 35% of total healthcare expenditures allotted to public health.

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Justin and Kathlyn (not their real names) are both congenital heart disease patients and usual playmates. Having gone through the operation already, Kathlyn treats Justin as a little brother, telling him not to be afraid of the doctors. Indeed, the place is such a home–and the people in it family–that anyone, even doctors, would forget that they're in a hospital.

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Tahan-tahanan (Home Away from Home)

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