In today’s episode, we spotlight Icar Castro and Girlie Lorenzo — co-founders of Kythe Foundation — and their journey as graduate students to leaders in healthcare advocacy for children. Their work in the foundation revolves around Child Life services, and how their work for children with terminal illnesses have helped pave the integration of psychosocial support in the Philippine healthcare system.

Icar Castro is the co-founder of Kythe Foundation, a non-profit organization that has been providing psycho-social support to children with cancer and other chronic illness since 1992. She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees and a consultant of Kythe for training, human resource, and volunteer mobilization. In addition, Icar has more than 8 years’ experience in the fields of education play therapy, and counseling psychology. She is a registered Psychologist with the Philippine Professional Regulation Commission.

Fatima (Girlie) Lorenzo co-founded Kythe Foundation, an organization which addresses the needs of more than 20,000 children with cancer and other chronic illness a year, in ten partner hospitals nationwide. She is a Certified Child Life Specialist and is a member of the Association of Child Life Specialists, USA. She completed her Child Life internship at the University of California San Francisco Hospital. Fatima is a Philippine-licensed Child and Family Psychologist.