There's more to life than simply breathing and earning one's daily bread. At the end of a day of toiling and tasking is the question of, "What have you done to the least of your brethren?"

Besides chronicling everyday-life stories, your Visayan DAILY STAR has also responded to calls from the less privileged -- on its own, or as a medium -- to extend assistance from benevolent donors, most of whom, have humbly remained anonymous. It is one of the missions of this paper to help impoverished patients realize that the world has not fallen down on them altogether, that there is still another day, and that they should not cease hoping.

In fact, this paper does not promise anything to those it helps - except to give them hope that its kindhearted readers will heed the appeal for financial assistance.

The DAILY STAR shares in the so-called "lease of life" stories of those who may have thought that death was near, or did not think they would survive after all.

The tragedy itself can not overshadow the more telling fact of battling the odds, by patients who have remained resolute in their hope that "This, too, will pass."

BURNED, BUT NOT GIVING UP

Foremost is the story of burn patient, Thelma Panes, 32, from Hinobaan town, in Negros Occidental, who has been assisted by the STAR, in coordination with various groups and private individuals, to undergo a series of surgeries in Manila.

A victim of business jealousy, Thelma, a mother of three, suffered second and third degree burns when her neighbor, Rosee Aque, threw gasoline at her, and set afire, burning almost her entire body, in the evening of May 4, 2004.

Through the help of unsung Good Samaritans, and countless others who had learned of her story through reading the DAILY STAR, or logging on to its website, Thelma survived and is now in the recovery phase.

Worthy of mention is the help coming from the Bacolod-based International Care Ministries Philippines, Seacrest Foundation, Philippine Airlines, foreign donors, and Token Lizares who did a concert for Thelma, among many other benevolent donors, who shared a part of themselves, to try to repair the brokenness in others.

Although Thelma has showed the determination and strong will to get up from the fall, she has yet to surmount more crucial battles: more operations, social acceptability, and the frustrated murder charges she has filed against her assailant, before the Kabankalan City court.

To these, the STAR and other donors are continually responding, and STAR columnist, lawyer Andy Hagad, has offered his legal services for her case, pro bono.

IN THE EYES OF A CHILD

The STAR has likewise helped seek donors to help finance the operations or the continued medication of children suffering various illnesses, ranging from difficulty in breathing, to the more severe defects and diseases such as hydrocephalus or meningitis pneumonia.

From June last year, up to the present alone, the STAR has facilitated help for about 25 children who have been confined at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City.

One does not need to ask the parents about their children's condition. The children's eyes convey the ordeal they suffer. Through help procured for them by the STAR, most of them were able to survive, and their parents continuously relay their messages of thanks.

For the very few who have not been lucky, the STAR can only pray for their journey toward the beyond.

THE QUESTION THAT MATTERS

''So what have you done to the least of your brethren?" This is one question that matters. Until one tries to answer it, the question will forever remain. But, who knows, asking it may lead to the answer, that will be even more relevant.

In its own little way, the DAILY STAR has tried to answer it through the help it has facilitated for the suffering who have the least.*GCT

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