Olivia V. Yanson, the matriarch of the Yanson Group of Bus Companies, is providing all out support for an ongoing medical mission in Bayawan City, Negros Oriental, this week (Sept. 2-5) that will enable about 200 indigent patients to undergo major and minor surgeries for free.
Yanson is providing the food, accommodations and transportation of the 50-member medial team, composed of Manila-based doctors, most of whom are from St. Luke’s Medical Center, Bayawan Councilor Mark AbayDan Aurelia said.
She has also funded the construction of two more operating rooms and provided the lights and equipment for them at the Bayawan District Hospital so more free surgeries could be conducted this week, City Councilor Mark AbayDan Aurelia said.
Yanson has also donated two ambulances to Bayawan and plans to also give the city a bus.
Aurelia said Yanson, who is from Bayawan City, is a person committed to helping the poor and those in need.
“We feel her sense of belongingness, especially in her commitment towards Bayawan…she has been here for the poor and the needy,” Aurelia said.
Yanson said she is happy to help because she is from Bayawan City.
After the medical mission she also plans to visit the Bayawan District Hospital to see what else is needed and what she can give to help, Yanson said.
“I want to give what is needed not only in Bayawan but in other places”, she said.
She is also sponsoring a medical mission for free cleft palate surgeries for indigents next month.
Yanson, before she and her husband founded what has become the biggest bus company in the country, was a nurse by profession having graduated from Silliman University.
The lifesaving medical mission this week is being undertaken by doctors who are members of the World Surgical Foundation Philippines, and is also sponsored by Bayawan City and the Negros Oriental provincial government, Aurelia said.
On Tuesday 25 major surgeries and 60 minor surgeries were scheduled, and the same number is expected for Wednesday.
The patients are from all over Negros Island, Aurelia said.*