Children In Philippines Benefit From Woodstock Resident's Mission Trip

Monday, 29 April 2019 07:50

Grace Carbilledo-Vincent on mission trip in the Philippines (submitted)

A Woodstock woman is home after she completed a mission trip in the Philippines.

WOODSTOCK - Woodstock's Grace Carbilledo-Vincent is home after coming back from the Philippines following a mission trip.

Carbilledo-Vincent is a retired dentist and immediate past president of the Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club.

She says part of her mission was providing dental care to less privileged children.

"I did a dental mission and these are children in a boys shelter, these children are abandoned, orphans or the indigents. So I did, with the Cebu Dental Society, we did the dental mission, we did fillings and extractions and I distributed some t-shirts as well that was donated to us by Giant Tiger and they were happy about it."

Carbilledo-Vincent also worked with the Rotarians in the Philippines to provide laptops to high school students. She says the children were very excited to receive their computers.

"They were just so happy and when I distributed that I actually was invited to a graduation from the high school students. All of the parents, all the committee was there, it was very well attended. In fact we had a celebration of a feast of food afterwards and everybody was showing their gratitude and they gave a big applause when they learned and everyone was like, 'Oh!.' That was their reaction when I handed the laptops to them because it is very, very essential for the high school students to do their research."

Originally from the Philippines, Carbilledo-Vincent visited the city of Cebu and other provinces.

She has taken mission trips there in the past and she says she just simply wants to give back and help.

"I am from the Philippines originally and of course I know the need of the people. There is a lot of poverty as a third world country, and now that I am in Canada I felt so blessed and I wanted to share my blessings to them as well. Giant Tiger are very, very generous to us and anything that I could give or bring some help to them is a big thing. And every time I give to them, it would still give me tears in my eyes everytime I would do some humanitarian aid in the Philippines. And I'm so happy that I'm able to share my blessings to the people I grew up with or the country I grew up in."

Carbilledo-Vincent left for her trip earlier this month. She says the Woodstock-Oxford Rotary Club is also working on other projects in the Philippines, Mozambique and Nepal.