STORIES
Cerdena FAMILY
Philippines ( 2014 ~ 2022 )
“ I met Heidilyn L. Cerdena almost 9 years ago; she had a baby Girl named Pauleen. The Father of that child disappeared one day while going to the nearby City to look for work. Heidi did not know if he was killed or just ran away from obligations, and perhaps, found another innocent girl to get pregnant and repeat his unfaithful acts. The young Mother-Heidi was left alone to provide for this newly born child all by herself, and then, I came into the picture. I met Heidilyn on Facebook; she sent me pictures of herself and the baby girl. Overtime, I would send them money to buy food and any other items the child needed. On Pauleen’s Birthday I would pay for a small Party to Celebrate her Life on this significant day.
One time I saw the child sleeping on a wooden bed, I was so moved by sadness, that I decided for her next birthday I would send money to her Mother to buy a nice mattress and blankets to MAKE A DREAM COME TRUE for her Special day of the Year!
After a while, I became quite fond of the mother and child and decided to help them in their poverty-stricken life. Also, I wanted to see Pauleen grow up so she can see how successful her mother had become, and therefore, she would be more confident within herself for a Life in the future.
I want to add that at this point, I had donated thousands of dollars to this Family by building an attached Storeroom to their house. Heidi was in the process of purchasing this house from the Philippines' Government, while the Government was adding high interest and dragging it out for years to make it so a person in that financial situation would never be in a position to pay it off.
To conclude:
From time to time, I send to Heidilyn and her daughter some extra money to catch up on paying their bills when things are rough in their economy. Heidi rarely has enough paying customers in her store to make any profit within the Month. As of today, if Pauleen gets sick and needs to go to the Doctor or even stay a few days in the Hospital, I pay for that myself. The Philippines is one of the least expensive places to live-in in the World. A person could spend a night in their City’s Hospital and only pay $50.00 or 2500 pesos.
In short: I continued to help Heidi throughout the years, and then… later on, mothers of other families joined my donation list too. For the past 8 years I have helped over 50 Families one way or another; I assisted them financially to cope with the survival of their children. My average month has been feeding 14 children and their Mothers, if I was able to do taxes in the United States that allowed me to include this children from the Philippines, I would mark down 14 dependents on my W2 form! LOL!!
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Story By: L. JAY BAKER
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" Jay has always been there for my Family. He is like our guardian Angel for many, many years. My Daughter thinks of him as her long distant father, he has help my family get out of poverty and see that we have a very healthy life here in the Philippines! "
