Around the world, Holt sponsors and donors help to ensure children with disabilities receive the vital care they need — including for one young girl in the Philippines who was born without a skull.
Katrina’s health conditions are some of the most serious we’ve ever seen. She was born without a full skull, with a cleft lip and palate, and she also suffers from regular seizures and severe asthma.
For Katrina, each day is a gift. And each milestone a cause for celebration. So for her recent eighth birthday, there was a full party and photoshoot!
In a beautiful floral dress and headband, she sat on a padded chair in front of the decorations her caregivers lovingly set up for her. Her caregivers and the other children at the care center sang “Happy Birthday,” and celebrated Katrina and another year of life.
“Every day is a new challenge for [Katrina], as every season is a change that affects her health condition,” says Ms. Nisan, the care center director where Katrina lives in the Philippines. “Despite this situation, she continues to inspire us with her strength and resilience to overcome every health challenge.”
Overcoming these challenges is, in large part, made possible by the loving, committed support of Holt donors.
Helping Children with Medical Needs
Each year, Holt donors give to the Molly Holt Fund to help children just like Katrina. Molly Holt was a nurse and the daughter of our founders, and she dedicated her life to caring for children with disabilities and special needs. Today, this fund continues in her honor, providing critical medical care, therapies, nutrition and feeding help, special education and more to children around the world.
Katrina’s care center in the Philippines is one of the incredible programs that Holt donors support through the Molly Holt Fund. They provide multiple services for the orphaned and vulnerable children in their care, including residential care, foster care, independent living programs for older children, and support to reunite them with their birth families, if possible.
For Katrina and other children like her with the highest of medical needs, there’s also the children’s recovery unit.
Caring for the Most Medically Fragile Children
The children’s recovery unit serves medically fragile children by helping to restore and improve their health. Some of the children live there temporarily until they can become healthier and reunify with their families. Others are part of an outpatient program for families living in neighboring communities. Through this program, parents can bring their children in each day for specialized therapies and medical care.
In their children’s recovery unit, Katrina receives daily, specialized care, including a very specific diet to ensure her body has enough strength and nutrients to get through her frequent seizures. She has access to an expert team of doctors at a nearby hospital. Nurses make sure she has the asthma medication and breathing treatments she needs to strengthen her lungs. She is gently cared for and set only on soft materials that will keep her head and brain safe.
“The staff care tremendously for the children there… Programs like Helping Hands give children the chance at life they deserve.”
Julia Hayes, Holt’s manager of nutrition and health services, visited Katrina’s care center earlier this year and was impressed by the level of care the children received.
“The staff care tremendously for the children there,” Julia says. “I was introduced to a few of the kids who laughed and played and felt free to be a kid. After lunch, many of the children were brought outside for fresh air, sunshine and play. I found that children with special needs are met with the resources they need right at home, including modified diets prepared by kitchen staff and specialized medical care provided by nurses.”
This high-level care makes a tremendous difference for all of the children who live there, but especially those with the highest level of medical needs.
Top-Level Care for Children with Special Needs
In addition to Katrina, there’s Mary Ann, who has endured years of seizures and paralysis due bacterial meningitis — but is now recuperating and building her strength with specialized nutrition. Stephanie was born with microcephaly, and is also epileptic, mute, deaf and blind. She was neglected and malnourished when she was first brought to her care center, but is now gaining weight and experiencing fewer seizures because of the nurturing care she’s receiving.
Kevin was just 9 days old when he was brought into care in May of this year. He was born at a very low birth weight, and was found to be allergic to the cow’s milk in his formula. With support, he now receives specialized formula and is being closely monitored. He is growing and thriving more each day!
To grow and thrive is the goal for every child at this special care center. Even those with the most severe needs, like Katrina.
To Grow and Thrive
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While the medical care and nutrition interventions create a tangible and powerful outcome for the children here, just as important is the nurturing care they receive from their caregivers, made possible by Holt donors.
Something as simple as a birthday party can show a child that she is loved and cared about. She can feel at peace knowing that loving adults will keep her safe, fed, and meet even her most complex needs. She can know her immense value, in the midst of the challenges she faces.
“Programs like [this one] give children the chance at life they deserve,” Julia says. “Specialized care helps children know they are safe and that their needs will always be met. This felt safety supports development and growth — and helps them achieve more than ever thought possible.”
Give to the Molly Holt Fund!
Provide urgently needed medical care, therapies or special education to a child with a disability or special need.
