Project Bravekids

Cancer chooses no one and sometimes, it afflicts even the most innocent among us: our children. Once diagnosed with the dreaded disease, children are thrown into a totally different world, one even adults fear. It is a world wherein the struggle for life is felt daily, where every little step can be crucial.

One of these children is Seve Perez. In September 2005 – one month after turning 3 years old – Seve was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.

Seve had to undergo one of the most difficult medical treatments, chemotherapy. He met his doctors more than his teachers, visited hospitals and laboratories more than parks and playgrounds, and had to endure sleeping on hospital beds instead of his own.

Despite these trials, Seve  remained cheerful and playful, very active and inquisitive like any boy his age. He showed tremendous courage facing his affliction. In March 2008, exactly 890 days after diagnosis, and after 1,000 needles, Seve was declared in complete remission.  For the next five (5) years, Seve will undergo regular checkups, and only after 5 years without treatment will the doctors declare him medically cured. With the blessing of the Almighty, Seve will grow up like any regular boy, with dreams and aspirations, though armed with unique experience - that even now, is bringing out firm resolve from him that he will help other children so that no child will suffer as much as he did. 

However touching Seve’s story may be, it is not unique. He is just one of thousands who suffer from childhood cancer in the Philippines. And like Seve, these children are forced to battle their cancer each and every day. This battle sometimes takes years, and is always a very costly one – making it doubly hard for the children and their families.

The courageous spirit of Seve and over a thousand other children who gamely battle cancer have inspired Seve’s parents, Paul and Sigrid Perez, to establish Project: Brave Kids.

Project: Brave Kids currently supports families whose children are being treated at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center, located at Quezon Avenue corner Agham Road in Quezon City. Its programs are implemented in close coordination with the hospital administration and the Section of Hematology and Oncology of PCMC.

Kalinangan Youth Foundation, Inc.

The Kalinangan Youth Foundation, Inc. (KALFI) is a private non-stock, non-profit foundation registered with the SEC on September 14, 1983 by a group of women volunteers who initiated activities aimed at complimenting university-based learning through holistic formation. It is an operating organization engaged in values formation for young women. Its main office is located in Legaspi Village, Makati City and also maintains study centers around the Metro.

Its purposes, among others, are “to provide holistic formation of high school, university student and young professional women.” The Foundation’s programs now focus on regular training, seminars and activities to enhance their delivery of service to the community and society.

Its source of income comes mainly from grants and donations from individuals with some minimal revenues from its operation of programs.