The One Who Stayed Behind
By Marisse G.Abelgas
I have known Dr. Jennifer Mendoza-Wi since grade school. She was always first in academic honors, was always first to volunteer for charity work at PGH or Welfareville in Manila, was always first to put a sense of leadership to the test in trying situations. When we headed off for college, it hardly came as a surprise to know that she had decided on becoming a doctor, taking up internal medicine and specializing in pulmonary medicine at the University of the Philippines-PGH.
Knowing her potential for success, I half expected her to try her luck abroad, perhaps in Europe or the U.S. Instead, Jennifer proudly announced one day that she and husband Zen, an ENT specialist and fellow UP graduate had decided to go back to their roots, to establish their medical practice in the province of Pangasinan, where she would pioneer the practice of pulmonary medicine.
“Actually, I was offered a two-year research scholarship after my fellowship but I chose to take up the challenge,” Jennifer says.
She is still quite active at the Department of Internal Medicine at the UP-PGH, having been elected President of its Alumni Group and Board Member of the Sagip-Buhay Foundation which raises funds for the department’s medicine and blood bank.
In Dagupan meanwhile, Zen and Jennifer’s patients are mostly farmers, fishermen, vendors, tricycle drivers, teachers, students, office workers. Oh yes, they treat overseas workers too, including patients from Guam who come for check ups because “they trust the Filipino doctors more than the health care providers there.”
“Zen calls them the regular people,” Jennifer says, adding that these “regular people are normally the honorable ones when it comes to paying the doctors’ fees.” Those who can’t pay, come to the clinic bearing gifts of live chickens, succulent bananas, fresh or dried fish or other native delicacies that warm the doctors’ hearts.
Between the couple’s constant travels abroad and regular commutes to Manila where their three sons live, Jennifer has been mightily busy with charity work. For the past 18 years, she has been seeing the TB patients of the Sisters of Charity for free, every Friday. For this, she has been given the Governor’s Community Service Award by the CHEST Foundation of the American College of Chest Physicians in the U.S. and the College of the Holy Spirit Community Service Award by our high school alma mater. She established the Asthma Club in Dagupan, which conducts free education programs for asthmatics and helps out with their medication. She is also advocating for a lung function machine in every major district hospital.
She has put her household helpers through school and so far, has graduated three midwives, one nurse, two in hotel and restaurant management, one in computer studies, with yet another midwife nearing completion of her course. Most of them have nailed good-paying jobs because of their college education and have put their own siblings through school, which is the only thing Jennifer asks of her “scholars” in return.
Why am I writing about her?
Because maybe it’s time we acknowledged the new unsung heroes like Jennifer and Zen, who, despite their great chances for wealth and success in other countries, have chosen to stay in the homeland. To serve, to heal, to change things for the better.
The mass emigration of Filipinos, especially medical workers, is “a sad reality of life,” Jennifer concedes. “I don’t blame anyone, not even Philippine politics because I believe it’s a personal decision to stay in the Philippines and try to make life for Filipinos better, and conversely, to leave for greener pastures to make life better for one’s self and one’s family. In the end however, it’s how the community takes care of its own that makes a difference.” That, for the most part gives her hope, sustains her optimism, fuels her advocacy. She has seen it happen in many places all over the country, and she’s inspired.
As the Filipino diaspora transmutes tragically from an economic solution into a social problem, a new breed of heroes has emerged to hold the fort : the ones who could have left, but didn’t...the ones who, like Jennifer and Zen, are truly making a difference.
I have known Dr. Jennifer Mendoza-Wi since grade school. She was always first in academic honors, was always first to volunteer for charity work at PGH or Welfareville in Manila, was always first to put a sense of leadership to the test in trying situations. When we headed off for college, it hardly came as a surprise to know that she had decided on becoming a doctor, taking up internal medicine and specializing in pulmonary medicine at the University of the Philippines-PGH.
Knowing her potential for success, I half expected her to try her luck abroad, perhaps in Europe or the U.S. Instead, Jennifer proudly announced one day that she and husband Zen, an ENT specialist and fellow UP graduate had decided to go back to their roots, to establish their medical practice in the province of Pangasinan, where she would pioneer the practice of pulmonary medicine.
“Actually, I was offered a two-year research scholarship after my fellowship but I chose to take up the challenge,” Jennifer says.
She is still quite active at the Department of Internal Medicine at the UP-PGH, having been elected President of its Alumni Group and Board Member of the Sagip-Buhay Foundation which raises funds for the department’s medicine and blood bank.
In Dagupan meanwhile, Zen and Jennifer’s patients are mostly farmers, fishermen, vendors, tricycle drivers, teachers, students, office workers. Oh yes, they treat overseas workers too, including patients from Guam who come for check ups because “they trust the Filipino doctors more than the health care providers there.”
“Zen calls them the regular people,” Jennifer says, adding that these “regular people are normally the honorable ones when it comes to paying the doctors’ fees.” Those who can’t pay, come to the clinic bearing gifts of live chickens, succulent bananas, fresh or dried fish or other native delicacies that warm the doctors’ hearts.
Between the couple’s constant travels abroad and regular commutes to Manila where their three sons live, Jennifer has been mightily busy with charity work. For the past 18 years, she has been seeing the TB patients of the Sisters of Charity for free, every Friday. For this, she has been given the Governor’s Community Service Award by the CHEST Foundation of the American College of Chest Physicians in the U.S. and the College of the Holy Spirit Community Service Award by our high school alma mater. She established the Asthma Club in Dagupan, which conducts free education programs for asthmatics and helps out with their medication. She is also advocating for a lung function machine in every major district hospital.
She has put her household helpers through school and so far, has graduated three midwives, one nurse, two in hotel and restaurant management, one in computer studies, with yet another midwife nearing completion of her course. Most of them have nailed good-paying jobs because of their college education and have put their own siblings through school, which is the only thing Jennifer asks of her “scholars” in return.
Why am I writing about her?
Because maybe it’s time we acknowledged the new unsung heroes like Jennifer and Zen, who, despite their great chances for wealth and success in other countries, have chosen to stay in the homeland. To serve, to heal, to change things for the better.
The mass emigration of Filipinos, especially medical workers, is “a sad reality of life,” Jennifer concedes. “I don’t blame anyone, not even Philippine politics because I believe it’s a personal decision to stay in the Philippines and try to make life for Filipinos better, and conversely, to leave for greener pastures to make life better for one’s self and one’s family. In the end however, it’s how the community takes care of its own that makes a difference.” That, for the most part gives her hope, sustains her optimism, fuels her advocacy. She has seen it happen in many places all over the country, and she’s inspired.
As the Filipino diaspora transmutes tragically from an economic solution into a social problem, a new breed of heroes has emerged to hold the fort : the ones who could have left, but didn’t...the ones who, like Jennifer and Zen, are truly making a difference.
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