Our Story
Imagine a world where all individuals receive quality health care.
For nearly 15 years, Operation Care Abroad (OCA) has provided top quality medical care in conjunction with local surgeons to the people in the Mindanao region in the Philippines who would otherwise not receive care.
Under the leadership of Nurse Oscar Ong, originally from Davao City, Philippines, and Nurse Debbie Ong, volunteers gather annually on medical missions in Davao City at the Southern Philippines Medical Center, to provide, without charge, critical surgical services and anesthesia to hundreds of individuals with limited financial resources
2008
First sponsorship of Villa Rupenta for encephalocele repair and craniofacial reconstruction. She was treated at the Poretta Eye Center in Southfield, Michigan and given a prosthetic eye.
1978
2003
1983
Nurse Ong recruited five St. John CRNAs to volunteer their services at the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) to combat the disparity. Together with SPMC Chief, Gerry Cunanan M.D., and his team of local surgeons, they performed cleft lip and palate repairs, thyroidectomies, and hernioplasties on individuals who would otherwise not have the resources for medical services.
2005
What we have done so far
Nurse Ong partnered with the CRNA programs at Wayne State University, University of Detroit Mercy to recruit additional volunteers.
2010-11
2018
OCA sponsors three new patients and partners with CRNA programs at Michigan State University and Oakland University.
OCA enters its 15th year of medical missions and partners for the first time with University of Detroit Jesuit High School. Twelve high school students participate in a service-learning immersion trip with OCA.
Nurse Oscar Ong arrives in the US from Davao City, Philippines and begins working at Mount Carmel Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.
Marries Nurse Debbie after working together for 4 years.
