Special Commission on Relief and Education

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Special Commission on Relief and Education

SCORE is a humanitarian foundation of the Filipino Association of Toledo, an organization with a visi FILIPINO ASSOCIATION OF TOLEDO (F.A.T.)

OUR HISTORY

In 1978 a group of Filipinos who have migrated to Toledo, organized themselves, with the purpose of camaraderie and mostly to maintain their culture, and to help each other. As time passed by, these immigrants became rooted into the culture of another land, but at the same time preserved their own ethnic culture. Members became more successful in their trade and professions. They beca

me involved with their community, church and school activities. They gained respect, and became leaders in their respective fields. In their desire to help, the less fortunate in their native land and their adopted country, they formed a Charitable Foundation (SCORE) which would be the instrument for the realization of their humanitarian projects. Filipino Association of Toledo, is a social and cultural organization of the Filipinos in Toledo, Ohio, USA. We are registered as a non-profit organization with the State of Ohio.

09/06/2025

SCORE Medical Relief Team to Ukraine
Rich’s Log 9/4/25

The clinic today was held at the Transcarpathian Baptist Foundation building. Clinic teams of Susan and Olena, John and Veronica, and Yurii and I saw a steady stream of IDPs while Jessica and Tanya dispensed the meds.

I had a 54 yr old male who waited for hours to be seen. We remembered each other from prior visits. For his Bullous Pemhigoid leg lesions, I wrapped an Unna boot on him and treated his BP of 180/100 with triple therapy.

John and Jessica had a 78 year old male who was started 1 month ago on 10 new meds for a diagnosis that he couldn’t remember. He wasn’t feeling well on the 3 meds that he was actually taking. John diagnosed him with atrial fibrillation. The portable echo showed a decreased ejection fraction and severely sclerosed aortic valves. He cried over the diagnosis until Jessica reassured him that he could still live longer with good treatment. He left promising to take all 6 of his new meds and follow up with a cardiologist. He invited John and Jessica back again.

I treated a 63 yr old male with hearing loss. His wife said she was tired of yelling at him. After confirming that he actually wanted to hear his wife better, I gave him our last hearing aid.

My last patient was a 58 year old woman from Kharkiv who fled from the war zone to Berehove with her family 3 years ago after her apartment was bombed by the Russians. She had newly diagnosed diabetes with a glucose of 361 and uncontrolled hypertension with a BP of 161/104. Jessica gave her a dose of insulin and we provided her with DM education, a glucometer, automatic home BP monitor, Metformin, Losartan, and aspirin.

Ate lunch at 6 pm, packed up the supplies that Yurii will deliver to the military hospital in his city, and donated the rest of the meds and supplies to Csaba and Tony’s foundation to assist others in the region.

We said farewell to everyone and made plans for a future mission. Our friend, Márk Szabó, with HBA drove us over the border and back to the Parlament Hotel in Bucharest, Romania. Oops, I meant Budapest Hungary.

To the 350 patients that touched our lives over the past week and everyone that showered us with so much kindness during this mission, dyakuyu, berezhitʹ sebe i do nastupnoyi zustrichi (thank you, stay safe, and until next time)!

09/05/2025

SCORE Medical Relief Team to Ukraine
Rich’s Log 9/4/25

Today we travelled to a new shelter for internally displaced Ukrainians. The former school was updated and is now home to 80 adults and 70 children.

Russia now controls about 20% of Ukraine’s territory, seizing all of the region of Luhansk, much of the Donetsk, and parts of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Sumy regions.

Sometimes the villagers only have 2 to 3 hours to evacuate on a train that brings them to a safer area in Western Ukraine. Many of them, mostly women and children, arrive with very little. They survive through a combination of government support, humanitarian aid, local community networks, job opportunities, and their own resilience.

Susan and Olena, John and his 10th grade translator Veronica, and Yurii and I set up the clinics in a community room. Team pharmacy functioned smoothly with Jessica, Tanya, and Svetlana dispensing the meds with lots of kindness and smiles.

My first patient was a 12-year-old girl with depression and anxiety, crying and nervously rubbing her hands. Back in 2014, her family had to evacuate from their village when Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Her second evacuation was 3 months ago when the refugee train dropped them off in Berehove. We provided counseling and sertraline to both her and her mom.

John’s patient was a prisoner of war for 2 years. The Russians tortured him with electric shock and starved him. His wife shared a picture of his former athletic body, withered to skin and bones at the time of the prisoner exchange.
He was left with physical and mental scars requiring seroquel and pregabalin.

One of the newest IDP‘s was a woman with 4 and 8 year old children who just evacuated from Dnipro one week ago. Her husband is still missing.

John treated a lady whose house was destroyed by a Russian missile. Her family was buried under the rubble for 2-3 hours, resulting in amputation of all of her left toes. He cleaned and dressed her chronic left leg ulcer and provided supplies for the next 3 months.

Veronica, his translator, became our next patient after she nearly passed out watching John take care of the wound.

Yurii and I took care of the mom’s kids. The 17 year old son arrived into the hospital comatose with a fractured skull, brain bleed , and 3rd degree burns on his right hand. He eventually healed from these injuries and came to the IDP shelter 1 month ago. For his hearing loss, I gave him a neckband hearing aid.

His 14 yr old sister had a window that shattered into her right ear. Pieces of shrapnel fractured her skull and is still lodged in her left temporal lobe.

Amazingly, both kids were smiling, not depressed or anxious, were both studying on line with their very supportive teacher, and wanted to become chefs. I told them that after this war ends, I want to return to eat at Artem and Erena’s restaurant.

Olena and Susan teared up when a mother said she didn’t know whether her son and husband were missing or dead.

Another woman came from the city of Myrnohrad that literally means “Peaceful City”, ironic in light of the war around it. The city of 50,000 is now down to only 1,000. Her grandson died in the war. She shared a picture of her son serving in the army and constantly worries about him.

"Slava Ukraini!" (Glory to Ukraine!) "Heroiam slava!" (To the heroes – glory!) All of the 57 patients that we saw today were Ukrainian heroes in the fight against Russian aggression.

We finished seeing the last patient at 8 pm and were treated back at the home of Fr. and Mrs. Egressy. They prepared a delicious dish of Rakotkrumpli (Macaroni, ground beef, sausage, eggs, sour cream, potatoes, olive oil, onions, paprika, and cheese) and szilvás gombóclum desert made of dough with plum inside, sprinkled nuts on the outside.

The Egressys walked us to the local store. Kids shouldn’t run wild in a candy store. Neither should adults. Guess what everyone’s getting for gifts from Ukraine? We shared a Ukrainian cake that Yurii says is the best ever. Agree.

09/04/2025

SCORE Medical Relief Team to Ukraine
Rich’s Log 9/3/25

Tony and Tanya drove us today to Lajos Kossuth Lyceum of Beregszasz. The school, built in 1902, was designed by a famous architect and named after the father of Hungarian democracy, providing education, mainly in Hungarian, for the last 123 years.

Emeshe, the Principal, set us up in a large gym, perfect for the clinic site. 4 high school students were assigned to each doctor. My 11th graders wanted to be an engineer, doctor, undecided, and a politician. Or was that an undecided politician?

My translator for the day was Christina, an English teacher at the school who was 2 hours late to her 2nd job in order to help me out. Dyakuyu.

It was a fun day for everyone, treating 148 patients. Susan, John, and Yurii, worked with their student team and teacher translators doing exams on all of the kids, while Christina and I concentrated on the teachers.

At midday, I went with Csaba and our translator Esther to the local radio station for an interview, mainly about some ways that kids can deal with the war stresses. Csaba thanked our SCORE team for their 3 years of a service to their region in Ukraine. We joined the grade school exercise class afterwards for a little stretching.

Yurii had a young girl who strained her knee from dancing and boxing. She packed a pretty good punch to the belly. Instead of RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation), the new PEACE and LOVE protocol is recommended , especially in Ukraine.

We had a 57 year old bus driver with a history of stomach cancer. I didn’t see any evidence of metastasis on ultrasound. For his anemia with a hemoglobin of 6.94, I urged him to follow up with his gastroenterologist and quit smoking. Jessica and team pharmacy provided him with iron tablets and omeprazole.

My last patient of the day was a 53 year old teacher who came in with a 5 day history of chest pain radiating to her back. She taught gymnastics and coached Ukraine’s freestyle ski jumping Olympian in the 2022 Olympiad. Her portable echocardiogram strongly suggested a thoracic aortic aneurysm. I sent her off for a stat CT chest at the closest hospital in Mukachevo, 45 minutes away.

After the clinics ended, John posted a keepsake of our team’s visit and the Principal and students took us on a tour of their school. We spotted a familiar face in one of the graduation class pictures lining the walls. The picture of President Zelenskyy recent visit was also proudly displayed.

The last room we visited was a staunch reminder of the war that Ukraine is still going through. The kids there had to learn how to avoid land mines, protect themselves from biological weapons of war, know how to do CPR, and stay safe during missile and drone attacks. We had 3 air alerts here over the last 2 days.

09/03/2025

SCORE Medical Relief Team to Ukraine
Rich’s Log 9/2/25

Dr. Yurii traveled 12 hours to rejoin our team for the 6th time. He completed a surgery residency in Ukraine last year and continues to use the Butterfly ultrasound that we trained him in.

Yesterday was the 1st day of school in Ukraine. Pastor Csaba and Fr. Egressy gave prayers and words of inspiration to the children. Csaba said that the students and parents seemed very happy, but the teachers looked like they were suffering from posttraumatic stress.

Tony and Tanya drove us to the Gabor Bethlen Grammar School in Berehove that educates 348 students from 1st to 11th grade. We walked past the older part of the school that had sandbags protecting the basement windows. Russia has damaged or destroyed almost 4,000 schools in Ukraine.

Erika, the school Principal, allowed us to set up the medical clinic in the new building that was funded by Hungary. Olena, Svetlana, and Kamilla assisted the team today. Emese, a new English grade school teacher, did a great job translating for me.

Treated a 13 year old boy with anxiety and insomnia since the start of the war. Csaba gave his mom information about the art therapy program that he runs for kids with PTSD. Unfortunately, the feeding program that Csaba’s organization ran for hundreds of internally displaced Ukrainians ended due to the loss of funding. School kids shouldn’t go hungry.

The spacer device that Csaba made out of a medicine bottle for a 7 year old girl with asthma worked great.

Most of the kids were healthy, They really enjoyed the health kits, notes of hope, and stuffed animals donated by the children of St. Rose school in Perrysburg.

Susan examined a 49 yr old female with a leg mass that Yuri found on ultrasound to be a a possible cancer. She was referred to Orthopedics.

John treated the kiddos and injected an elbow.

I saw a 39 year old male with Congenital Myotonia, the most common muscular dystrophy among adults of European ancestry. He was worried about his progressive muscle weakness.
His mother and sister had milder symptoms. Unfortunately, there are no resources in Ukraine to perform genetic testing for his son. He appreciated the PT exercises, cane and education that we provided.

Jessica is now leading her own pharmacy team!

We left meds and supplies for the school. Erika thanked us and took us on a tour of the new high school. It brought back memories of sitting in the St. John’s chemistry class with Fr. Sweeney rolling mercury with his hands.

Csaba treated the team to dinner at Helikon Hotel. While lookng over the menu written in Ukrainian, I realized that Google translate sometimes doesn’t work properly, or maybe it actually is trying to tell me something.

We finished the day by sitting in the salt room to clear our sinuses from all of the allergy symptoms that we seem to be developing. Did stats and called it a night.

09/02/2025

SCORE Medical Relief Team
Rich’s Log 9/1/25

I awoke with a HUGE killer hornet flying around in my room. I guess it beats Russian drone attacks anytime.

This war has separated so many families. I gave Csaba, his brother Pastor Tony, and Tony’s wife Tanya, a huge hug from their sister Livia, and spoke to Csaba about his wife and son in the U.S, Safe from the missiles but sorely missed.

Over the past 6 missions, our SCORE team has worked with Fathers Miklós and Marton Egressy.
Fr. Miklós is the pastor at the Protection of Blessed Virgin Mary Greek Catholic Church in Janoshi. The church was banned under Soviet rule and forced underground until Ukraine’s independence. Fr. Miklós was allowed to marry by the Pope in order to hide him from the Communist Russians and keep the Catholic Church alive.

Fr. Miklós had a child, Marton, who was brought to Mercy St. Vincent’s Hospital in Toledo every 6 months, from the ages of 8 to 18, to treat a growth hormone disorder. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Elizabeth Balint, and the Hungarian and Ukrainian communities in Toledo and Parma, OH supported them. Marton is now the pastor at Ascension Greek Catholic Church in Vylok.

This year, SCORE and Dr. Lana Zhukivska’s family assisted Fr. Marton, his wife Natália, and young daughters Abigèl and Olivia to come to Toledo to help Abigèl get a cleft palate repair. I’ve learned over our many mission trips that nothing is really a coincidence.and that this truly amazing Toledo and Ukraine connection is founded in our faith in God .

We worked today at a new Greek Catholic Church in Berehove where we treated many priests and their families. Three wonderful translators made it possible for us to communicate in Ukrainian and Hungarian. Clinic teams consisted of Karina, and John, Evelina and Susan, and Ryika and me. Evelina is actually a Ukrainian Family Physician on a 3 year maternity leave. Yes, they have 3 years of maternity leave in Ukraine, just a little bit more than the paltry 6 weeks in the U.S.!

We treated cases of uncontrolled diabetes, hypertension, gallstone pancreatitis, thyroid cancer, anxiety, depression, rheumatoid and osteoarthritis. Got to remove an insect from an ear canal. Even dispensed the AFO splint that we brought in case anyone had a foot drop problem.

Jessica did a wonderful job of holding down the pharmacy and dispensing the medications in fluent Ukrainian. Trying to teach her the different classes of medicines before medical school starts for her, next year.

Most interesting moment of the day occurred when Susan found out the hard way, that mineral water when mixed with an electrolyte packet results in a Mt. Vesuvius type eruption.

Fr. Miklós and his wife treated the team to a wonderful homemade dinner of cabbage rolls, bread, and a beignet type desert, with a sip of holy Brandy. We even got to tour the 118 year old beautiful and historic church, next to the school that still houses 28 internally displaced Ukrainians.

09/01/2025

SCORE Medical Relief Team
Rich’s Log 8/30-31/2025

This is the Special Commission on Relief and Education’s (SCORE) 7th medical relief mission into the Transcarpathia region of Western Ukraine. The experienced volunteer team consists of:
1. John Wells, MD. John initially joined our medical teams as a first year UT medical student and is now bringing his own medical teams into Guatemala.
2. Susan Batten, PhD, CNP. Susan keeps going strong. joining our teams throughout the world and locally through the Community Care Clinics.
3. Jessica Zhukivska, a UT senior who will be starting medical school next year. She has joined our teams into Central America and last year’s Ukraine mission. Her fluent Ukrainian will be super helpful in the pharmacy.
4. Me

It’s been 1286 days since Russia invaded Ukraine. The human cost is mind boggling with an estimated 150,000-200,000 Ukrainian and 350,000-400,000 Russian military casualties, 70,000 civilian deaths, 9 million displaced Ukrainians, and 35,000 Ukrainian children stolen by Russian troops and illegally transferred to Russia and Belarus.

Drs. Diane Cappelletty and Betsy Davis assisted our UT Students for Medical Missions team pack the meds from Mercy St. Anne’s Pharmacy and supplies in 1 day. Special thanks also to Maria Gonzalez for making our travel arrangements.

We left for Detroit at 6pm Saturday, flew to Amsterdam and into Budapest with ten luggages and a wheelchair. Our friend and partner, David Gál, the Chief Executive Director of Hungarian Baptist Aid, drove us 4 hours into Ukraine, easily crossing the border with the aid of his diplomatic passport.

Csaba Nagy, the director of the Transcarpathian Baptist Foundation, met us at Hotel Helikon, said a prayer of thanks for the team’s safe arrival, and over dinner, gave us the situation report since our last mission.

The war has gotten a little closer. Ten days ago, Russian missiles struck a U.S. owned electronics factory in Mukachevo, only 16 miles away, killing 23. We turned on our Air Alert app and reorganized our meds and supplies in preparation for the long week ahead of us finishing at 1 a.m. Monday morning. Looking forward to helping over the next week, those affected by this terrible war.

Address

Maumee, OH
43537

Website

http://www.scorefat.com/

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