By Jose Guillermo
Looking back, I remember writing about the Metabolic Camp, where I met a soft-spoken lady named Pilar Tan. She was part of our group chat, which included members who have children with metabolic conditions like PKU and MSUD. Pilar shared that she couldn’t understand Filipino, and I remember wondering who she was until I finally met her at the event.
As it turned out, Pilar didn’t understand Filipino. To give you some background, Pilar was raised in Spain, born in Taiwan, lived for 25 years in San Francisco, California, spent 18 years in Shanghai, and has now been living in the Philippines for 8 months. She’s also the founder of the WILL Foundation, which we’ll discuss more in this article. As the founder, Pilar’s duties are extensive: she takes children to their surgeries, raises funds for medical bills, organizes sponsorships for kids’ trips to the park, and arranges meals for them. She stays with the children during their surgeries, doing night shifts, handling grocery runs, cleaning, and cooking. She even found a devoted woman who helped with cooking for 10 years. Pilar also describes volunteers as “angels.”
Pilar was part of our team during the cooking session. She was fully engaged, paying attention to every detail of what we prepared, as she has a child with a metabolic condition similar to my daughter’s—PKU. Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a rare inherited disorder that causes an amino acid called phenylalanine to build up in the body.
During the cooking session, we had some chats and continued talking in the van, our service from the event back to the hotel. Pilar shared that she has 14 children—2 biological and 12 “adopted”—all with various medical challenges. These include cleft palates, cerebral palsy, single eyes or ears, spina bifida, and PKU. After 18 years, we learned that her children have grown up into amazing individuals. One is a baker and farm boss (we’ll discuss that later), one is an artist and self-taught pianist, another is a potter, one works as a special needs teacher, and a few are still studying, including some at special needs schools. As Pilar said, “God doesn’t leave anyone without talent.”
Pilar also mentioned that the Foundation owns a farm in China. Four years ago, before COVID, she felt the need to create another project to help the foundation to become more sustainable. After researching, she started a permaculture project. Permaculture is a philosophy of working with nature, observing it thoughtfully rather than laboring mindlessly, and viewing plants and animals in all their functions instead of treating them as isolated systems. (I may write a separate article about permaculture, as it’s an interesting topic.) After four years of work, Pilar realized that Mother Earth is very sick, and through this permaculture project, she learned that each of us must make changes to avoid leaving future generations with even greater problems, such as climate change, polluted water, and contaminated food.
Pilar shared the story of the WILL Foundation (Walk Into Life and Learn). The name was suggested by one of their board members, Gloria Alberti, and another friend from Australia. The foundation’s mission and vision are clear: “We want to give children who are left behind in life a chance to flourish. Our ‘Walk Into Life and Learn’ journey will emphasize character and skills building according to each child’s potential. We will help them by giving them the opportunity to experiment and create, both with their own hands and through their creativity. We will lead them to a more independent future. We want to encourage their desire to explore, to create and experiment, to find their individual talents, and to develop their full persona.” The goal is to help disadvantaged children (orphans) by giving them a home and loving them unconditionally. Pilar believes that since they provide love and opportunities to their biological children, they should share that love with others as well. She said, “Aren’t we all His children? Then why separate them by saying biological and not?”
So, how did WILL Foundation begin? It all started with a foster mother’s dream. In 2006, Pilar’s family took in a foster child, J. J., an orphan from Shanxi province who needed urgent medical treatment to fix his bilateral cleft lip. After his third surgery, they realized it would be better for his future to live with them in Shanghai. They knew they could offer him a better chance in life than he would have in the orphanage.
On their website, they had the WILL Shop, WILL Art, and WILL Tours, which were activities designed to help with fundraising. Unfortunately, these activities were eventually discontinued. Let me share what they were: one lady with an art background started teaching and selling her artwork, while another lady, an Australian who had lived in Shanghai, brought Australian tourists to the city and donated all the earnings from the tours. The WILL Shop sold donations from different companies.
I asked her sets of questions and here are some of her replies: What are the roles available at WILL Foundation this is what she said: “We always welcome volunteers, we had volunteers from all around the world when they came each time was a different task, in the past was to teach English to our kids, help with cooking, cleaning and even helping with our Physiotherapy that was given to few of our kids. But in the Philippines now we need a website designer (readers you might want to get in touch with Pilar. Contacts will be in the below article), someone willing to teach me Tagalog… a volunteer who wants to be my parttime assistant in learning about permaculture and brainstorming ways to help more people thru this mission.”
I’ve asked her if she has already established a WILL Foundation in the Philippines and where: “As a matter of fact, we have set up an NGO here! A volunteer lawyer helped us with the process, Thanks God we have been able to keep the same name! Walk Into Life and Learn Philippines! We are just waiting for a last submit then it is done! As to where we are praying for a possible site. So let’s all continue to pray!”
What can our readers do and how can our readers do and how can they help WILL Foundation? “Oh my this is the best part! Once we have the land, then we will duplicate our permaculture farm project here! But more interesting! We want to create a place where rich and poor and the middle class can cook and learn about lifestyle changes (healthy diets, healthy habits and learn about permaculture, as we must all learn the facts, and make this earth a better place for the next generations. I think everyone has the right to be healthier and happier by simplifying our complex lifestyle” (wow I can’t wait for this thing to happen).
Any inspiring words that you can share to our readers: “Whatever we do with our lives, do it with passion and integrity, don’t be mediocre. And don’t let fear be your excuse! Face the fear and do it anyways. One more thing I want the reader to know me is that I’m here to serve and not be served. I want to share my knowledge about achieving pure health, to share and engage with Filipino on how to use less plastic for example as everything we do now, will be reflected on our next generations. There’s so much to share of what I am planning to do! Lastly, I share with many, I would love to “market” Filipinos! I’ve been many countries, but Filipinos just make my heart sing with joy. I’ve many stories to strangers who has offered a hand to care, you people are very compassionate and good hearted. Totally blessed to be here.”
From a small house they have built WILL house to a bigger one to accommodate more kids:
How can they contact you if they want to donate or be a volunteer? “My viber number is +63 968 612 7496 text me and I would love to meet in person! And share the vision of WILL Philippines or email: [email protected]
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