The hardest goodbyes aren’t always at airports—they’re the ones you make when life demands you stay strong while your heart is somewhere else. Janice Lopez knows that feeling intimately, having spent nearly two decades building a life abroad while quietly carrying a mission that has now helped thousands of Filipino families back home.
At 44, Janice is an Overseas Filipino Worker in Qatar who has lived the familiar OFW story of sacrifice and endurance. But her journey took a deeply personal turn when motherhood collided with a medical crisis—one that would eventually lead her to create Jaden and Friends Inc., a volunteer-driven initiative helping children with congenital heart disease (CHD), particularly those from indigent families and children with Down syndrome, access proper medical care and life-saving heart surgeries.
Her mantra today is a reflection of everything she has lived through: “My journey as an ofw built strength, my role as a mother-built love, my mission as an advocate builds hope.” It reads like a simple line, but behind it is a story built from sleepless nights, painful distance, and a purpose born from a child’s survival.
A dream that began like many others
Janice did not come to the Middle East with plans of founding a nonprofit. Like countless Filipinos who leave home for work, she arrived with something more practical: the desire to secure a better future for her family.
“I came to the Middle East with a simple dream to build a better future for my family,” she shared with TGFM. She first worked in the UAE before eventually being transferred to Qatar. It was a career move, yes, but it also came with the weight OFWs know too well—loneliness, missed milestones, and a constant ache for home.
“Being far from home meant sacrifices, loneliness, and missing important milestones,” Janice said. “But those challenges strengthened me. They taught me resilience, faith, and the value of hard work.”
Seventeen years abroad has shaped her into someone steady and disciplined—qualities that would later become crucial when her life began to revolve around not just her family, but also the lives of other people’s children.
Life in Qatar, and the quiet pressure behind the job
In Qatar, Janice works as an admin on a five-day work week. Her role demands accuracy, organization, and constant coordination—tasks that are often invisible to outsiders but essential to daily operations.
“My responsibilities include managing documentation, preparing reports, coordinating with departments, and ensuring smooth daily office operations,” she explained.
Like many office-based OFWs, she navigates tight deadlines and urgent requests while juggling multiple tasks at once. It is the kind of job that leaves little room for mistakes, and even less room for emotional distraction.
“In my role, I often work under pressure,” she said. “I stay organized, prioritize effectively, and remain calm to ensure that all responsibilities are completed accurately and on time.”
But when she logs out of work, Janice’s second life begins—one that demands emotional stamina far beyond what any job description could capture.
A mother’s fear, and the beginning of a mission
In April 2017, Janice started Jaden and Friends. It began not as an advocacy plan, but as a coping mechanism.
“I started Jaden and Friends in April 2017, shortly after Jaden’s heart surgery,” she said. “During that time, I was emotionally overwhelmed and very homesick. I cried every day. Being far from home while my child was recovering was one of the most challenging seasons of my life.”
Her son Jaden has Down syndrome and congenital heart disease. Watching him endure surgery was already painful—but experiencing it while far away, as an OFW, made it even more unbearable. The distance magnified everything: the worry, the helplessness, and the fear that something could go wrong without her there.
To survive the emotional weight, she turned to something simple. She created a Facebook page and began sharing Jaden’s journey.
“To divert my attention and cope with the pain, I created a Facebook page to share Jaden’s journey,” she said.
What she didn’t expect was what came next. People began to reach out. Parents started messaging her, sharing their own children’s medical struggles. Some were desperate. Some were lost. Many had nowhere else to turn.
“What started as a simple outlet slowly became a small community,” she recalled.
And in that growing community, Janice found a new purpose.
From online support to real-world action
Janice’s initiative grew from posts to action. She began small, focusing on simple but meaningful support for sick children and their families. She collected preloved strollers. She coordinated diaper drives and gift-giving. She organized food distribution and simple cake celebrations.
“I then initiated small efforts such as collecting preloved strollers, coordinating with sponsors and families, organizing diaper drives, gift-giving, toys, food distribution, and simple cake celebrations for sick children,” she said.
It may sound modest, but for families struggling with hospital bills and uncertainty, even small acts can feel like lifelines.
“These activities kept me busy, but more importantly, they gave me healing and purpose,” she added.
But the turning point came in August 2018—when Janice reconnected with someone who had once been part of her son’s medical journey.
She reached out to Dr. Louisa Go, one of Jaden’s pediatric cardiologists at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). That reconnection sparked something bigger than Janice had imagined: a more structured and medical-centered mission that would become the Happy Hearts Project.
“This renewed connection became the turning point that led to the birth of the Happy Hearts Project,” she said.
Through partnerships with Dr. Go and other doctors who had cared for Jaden, including Dr. Cathleen Recaña-Lu and Dr. Dexter Cheng, the initiative began extending its support to more children.
Over time, more doctors joined the team, including Dr. Mary Mae Yu and Dr. Stacey Kaye Militante, among others.
Dr. Go’s message became a guiding spirit for the entire project:
“If you know a child with heart disease who needs help, let us help if we can—so they may have the same chance at a healthy and meaningful life, just like Jaden.”
Those words transformed the initiative from a mother’s coping outlet into a growing medical and humanitarian mission.
Saving hearts, one child at a time
Today, Jaden and Friends Inc. is more than a Facebook page. It is a registered nonprofit organization that supports children with Down syndrome and congenital heart disease, especially those from indigent families who struggle to access specialized cardiac care.
In late 2020, the organization was officially registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), giving it a stronger foundation and wider reach.
Its work is extensive and systematic. It conducts pediatric cardiac screening missions to detect congenital heart defects early. It coordinates referrals to doctors and partner hospitals, helping parents navigate complex medical processes such as echocardiograms and cardiac evaluations. It facilitates access to free or subsidized surgeries through partnerships with hospitals, Rotary Clubs, sponsors, NGOs, and government units. It also raises funds and provides emotional support through community-based programs.
Janice describes their work as walking alongside families—not just giving instructions, but helping them face fear and confusion.
“By walking alongside with them throughout the process, we help reduce fear, build confidence, and prepare them for their child’s life-saving heart surgery,” she said.
To date, Jaden and Friends has already helped more than 2,000 patients receive life-saving heart operations—an extraordinary number for an initiative that began as one mother’s emotional survival tool.
“God is answering our prayers through Jaden and Friends”
Janice has spoken to thousands of families, and while every story is different, the emotional pattern remains painfully familiar—fear, financial hardship, and uncertainty.
“All I do is answer their message or guide them—and they tell me, ‘Thank you mama Ja. God is answering our prayers through Jaden and Friends,’” she shared.
For Janice, those messages never lose their impact.
“That humbles me every time and makes me emotional,” she said.
But she admits her deepest motivation is still personal. It always comes back to Jaden.
“Jaden is not just the reason behind the name. He is the reason behind the mission,” she said.
Her advocacy is rooted in a painful truth she discovered during her son’s medical journey: children with Down syndrome are often not prioritized in the Philippines, especially when their condition requires expensive and complex treatment.
“There is an unspoken reality that some people think they are ‘less urgent’ or ‘less likely’ to thrive,” she said.
Janice refuses to accept that mindset.
“I will continue to advocate because no child should be left behind.”
Carrying two lives: OFW by day, advocate by night
Running a nonprofit while working full-time abroad is not easy, and Janice does not romanticize the struggle. In the early years, she lived on exhaustion.
“I would work during the day and respond to families at night,” she said. “It was physically exhausting and emotionally heavy.”
Another major challenge is resources. The need is constant, but funding and medical slots are not always immediately available. Some cases are too complex, and the organization cannot help everyone right away.
“One of the hardest things is telling a desperate parent to wait,” she admitted. “That part never becomes easy.”
Yet despite the limitations, the work continues.
“One child, one heart, one family at a time,” Janice said.
She also credits the volunteers and admins who have stood beside her throughout the years, working quietly behind the scenes—much like the theatre nurses she supports in spirit.
And perhaps one of the most beautiful outcomes of her mission is seeing former patients return as advocates themselves. Families who once begged for help now share their own happy endings, guiding new parents through the same terrifying journey.
“Families who once came to me afraid and uncertain are now giving hope to new parents who are facing the same fear,” she said.
A bigger vision for the future
Janice is not slowing down. Her future plans are bold and deeply needed. Jaden and Friends hopes to expand its free pediatric cardio screening and heart surgery assistance programs nationwide, with special focus on indigent children and children with Down syndrome.
She also hopes to extend support to adult patients with congenital and structural heart diseases who face similar financial and medical barriers.
“Our goal at Jaden and Friends Inc. is to expand our free pedia cardio screening and heart surgery assistance programs nationwide,” she said.
To do that, she is seeking stronger and more sustainable partnerships—with hospitals, corporate sponsors, media organizations, and local government units.
Her vision is not just about saving lives in the operating room, but also about building a nationwide system of early detection, timely intervention, and long-term care.
At its core, her mission remains simple, urgent, and deeply human:
“No life should be lost to heart disease because help was out of reach.”
And for an OFW mother who once cried every day in silence, that mission has become her way of turning pain into something powerful—proof that even from thousands of miles away, hope can still reach home.
