The commercial space program ‘Polaris’ and non-government organization St. Jude Global, delivered two Starlink internet broadband by SpaceX to the House of Hope Foundation for Kids with Cancer at the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) on Tuesday.
The SPMC is the first of five chosen St. Jude Global partners from all over the world (namely Brazil, Chile, Mozambique and Peru) to receive the Starlink broadband from the Polaris Program.
The turnover of high-speed broadband internet is geared at providing āgreater access to online medical conferencing, case and image sharing, and diagnostic assistanceā for the SPMC.
The entire crew of the Polaris Dawn mission (including Mission Commander Jared Isaacman, Mission Pilot Scott Poteet, Mission Specialist Sarah Poteet, Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon), scheduled to launch this July, personally delivered the Starlinks to the foundation.
House of Hope founding director Dr. Mae Dolendo and other SPMC doctors welcomed the donors and presided the turnover. St. Jude Global affiliates and patrons to the House of Hope foundation were also present during the event.
Two Starlinks are now installed at the SPMC; one for the House of Hope foundation and the other for the rest of the SPMC medical compound.
Lingap Program Head Patrick Celis said the local government is grateful for the donation as good internet access will indubitably improve the efficiency of the operations of the SPMC, especially in information sharing and medical research.
āWe are very happy na isa sa napili ang SPMC, especially sa House of Hope gyud kay daghan og bata na matabangan (We are very happy that the SPMC was chosen, especially the House of Hope because a lot of children will surely benefit),ā Celis said. CIO
