DUBAI: Poverty teaches lessons in sometimes uncanny ways.
Take it from Clinton Rosita Rabadon, 27, and Temie Paul Villarino, 31,who because of their being financially challenged, struggled hard and clung on their aspirations to become doctors.
And they did. In fact, they scored high at the recent Physician Licensure Examinations (PLE), where Rabadon topped with 89.83% , while Villarino placed ninth with a rating of 87.42 %
And there’s more. Now licensed doctors, Rabadon and Villarino, alumni of the West Visayas State University (WVSU) in La Paz, Iloilo City, are looking to give back to the community.
“You see patients in your locality who could not even go to the hospital. Those experiences molded my childhood and I [realized], I wanted to be a doctor,” Inquirer.net quoted Rabadon as saying.
A native of Masbate, Rabadon is the second youngest of four siblings whose mother, Molyn Rabadon, works as a public secondary school teacher, and father, Freddie Rabadon, a farmer.
“I grew up in a family where we had to work hard to survive. That [became] my motivation,” he said.
Rabadon was a consistent honor student and high school valedictorian. He finished his degree in Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Bicol University Polangui Campus in Albay and placed 10th in the July 2010 Nursing Licensure Examination. He then enrolled at the WVSU for his medical degree.
Currently busy with medical missions, Rabadon said he’d work part time as a general practitioner while waiting for his residency next year.
“If God will allow me to successfully finish my residency, I’m planning to go back and work for Masbateños,” he told Inquirer.
For his part, Villarino recalls what his mother, a retired public school teacher, tell her seven eight children: “My mama always told us, ‘We are poor and we don’t have wealth or land to pass on to you. We can only give you a good education.’”
Like Rabadon, Villarino’s father is also a farmer.
And like Rabadon, Villarino was an A-student, finishing high school a valedictorian and graduating magna cum laude from Western Mindanao State University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
Villarino, who hails from Zamboanga del Norte, said he wants to go back to his hometown in Godod, Zamboanga del Norte, and become his community’s first ever licensed physician.
“I cannot turn my back on people who really need my help. I will not specialize. I’ll probably become a municipal health officer,” he also told Inquirer.
