Mother’s love knows no limits

“It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into the doing that matters,” says Mother Teresa.

These are the words that inspired a 35-year-old woman to struggle everyday just for her family to survive.

Anacel Melendres, 35, a  mother of three children ages 13, 11 and 6 from barangay Kal-anan, Tabogon town, northern Cebu  Anacel Melendres, 35, raises her three children alone after her husband, a logger’s helper who was the cutting a tree feel and got disabled for life.

Grade 4 was all she got in school, but even without an engineering background she was able to put up their house with her own bare hand for her family to have shelter from the rain.

“Sa akong kaugalingong kamot akong gipabarug among balay, aron dili maulanan akong mga anak,” said Anacel.

Anacel’s family got relocated six years ago to a place with only a roof held up by a bamboo shoot. With no walls to shelter them from the wind and cold, Anacel decided to take fate into her hands as her husband was bedridden.

She went to the upper areas of nearby mountain barangays and asked for wood scrap from loggers so she could finish building her house.

Armed with a hammer and a bolo, Anacel put up the base, nailed some of the wood as flooring and weaved coconut leaves for the walls and roof.

Anacel earned money from selling driftwood, accepting laundry and tilling the soil for farmers daily for P10 per hour.

She sets aside a portion of her income for the school allowance of her children. Despite financial difficulties, Anacel continues to encourage her children to go to school.

But one day her eldest son’s teacher called her to discuss his behaviour. His son was caught stealing his classmates food because he was hungry. “Nauwaw ko. Di ko kamahay sa akong anak kay wala ko kahatag sa insakto (I was ashamed. I also could not blame my son because I was not a good provider),” said Anacel.

Just when she was about to crumble, Pantawid Pamilya came.

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is a poverty reduction program of the national government that provides a monthly conditional cash grant to the identified poor household amounting to P500 for health and P300 per child for a maximum of 3 children only 14 years old and below.

Anacel embraced the program wholeheartedly, saying she can now provide her children’s school needs.

“Abi naku ug damgo ra kutob ang makapalit ug kompleto nga uniporme sa akong mga anak (I thought buying my children complete uniforms would just be a dream),” she said.

When her husband finally succumbed to death, her friends made her support group.

Anacel hangs her children’s school IDs and medals in a spot in the house wall. “Aron akong handumanan nga tanan nakong kahagu sa pila ka tuig nga nangagi paingon sa maayong ugma sa akong mga anak (to remind me that all my sacrifices went to my children’s future),” Anacel said, adding love and pride that has no limits. /CONTRIBUTOR AILEEN P. LARIBA