A rarity among many

For the past several years, eight if I am not mistaken, the Jose R. Gullas Halad Foundation of my boss, Sir Dodong, has been providing free annual medical and nonmedical services and other activities for those who, because of poverty and other difficult challenges, found themselves in circumstances that make them unable to afford and otherwise avail of such services or derive benefits from such activities.

Now, the JRG Halad Foundation is not the only organization that does these things regularly. There are many others that offer even wider free services to a far greater number of people. And they are, without any doubt, similarly fired by a genuine desire to help those who badly need help the most. In this way, the JRG Halad Foundation may be seen as just one of the many humanitarian groups we often see or hear about.

But what sets the JRG Halad Foundation truly apart from all the rest is the deep sense of spirituality that guides the foundation at its very core. As a deeply religious man, Sir Dodong sees other needs in society that go beyond the physical health requirements of people or their legal and livelihood challenges that must be met with expert assistance and guidance.

Sir Dodong also sees that there are great deficiencies in the spiritual fulfillment and maturation of certain sectors in society that he felt must be addressed through the initiatives of the foundation. And so, in addition to all the regular humanitarian assistance that the foundation does every year, which is similar to all the other services provided by other organizations, the JRG Halad Foundation also sponsors activities meant to help nurture the spiritual health of people.

There are, for instance, regular sponsorships by the foundation of mass weddings for unmarried couples who have been cohabiting without enjoying the benefit of and grace from the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony. There are also regular sponsorships for mass confirmation of people who, while having been baptized as Christians and Catholics in their infancy, have never gotten around to having themselves confirmed as required of those who embrace the Catholic faith.

The JRG Halad Foundation is the only organization of its kind that I know of that does these things, and even more remarkably, on a regular basis. Maybe Sir Dodong has seen that, Cebu being the cradle of Christianity in Asia, it does not sit well for its name and reputation to have so many Cebuanos deficient in what is required for them to become good and abiding Christians.

Maybe it is because Cebu has grown and progressed so much and has become too cosmopolitan in its way of life that many of the Christian precepts required by the faith often become unprioritized in the people's constant rush to pursue the material benefits of daily life. This and many more factors could be the reason why many unmarried couples living together and baptized but unconfirmed Christians keep kicking the can of fulfilled Christian responsibility down the road.

But Sir Dodong, along with his wife Nena and the Halad Foundation, resolved to give these people a chance to make their Christianity whole by taking away any and all reasons why they should not get married or be confirmed. Sir Dodong and Ma'am Nena made these religious services a regular part of the foundation's yearly menu of activities. The satisfaction of having helped so many Christians complete their sacramental obligations is perhaps the best gift Sir Dodong can give himself.

‘The JRG Halad Foundation is the only organization of its kind that I know of that does these things, and even more remarkably,

on a regular basis.’