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February 8, 2025

In the face of poverty and discouragement, she became a doctor

Tzu Chi Zamboanga scholar Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy fulfills a childhood dream.

 

By Joy Rojas

 

 

“Why do you want to be a doctor?”

 

It’s a question Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy has been asked numerous times, and in various stages of her life. Based in Zamboanga, the 29-year-old wife and mother of a young son first declared her intention to be a doctor during her graduation from kindergarten. “I want to help,” Luy recalls. “That was my mindset.”

 

Years later, the question was asked when she applied for a scholarship with the Tzu Chi Foundation. This time, her answer hit close to home. “It stems from my upbringing. It’s hard to be sick, especially when you’re from a poor family,” she says.

 

Growing up with siblings who had asthma, she remembers her older brother being in and out of the hospital. To minimize expenses, their mother, a high school teacher who was separated from her father, took out a loan to purchase a nebulizer. “That nebulizer cost a lot,” says Luy. “My mother used her entire paycheck to pay for it.”

 

As a Muslim, Luy’s desire to become a doctor is consistent with the teachings of the Quran. “If you cure one person, it's as if you cure humanity,” she says. “It’s the same with killing. If you kill one person, it's as if you kill humanity.” 

 

Not all were supportive of her plan and pure intentions. Relatives labeled her “ambitious” and wondered why she wanted to study again when life was difficult enough and she already had a secure job as a science teacher with the Department of Education.

 

Still, Luy persisted and took their discouragement as a challenge. Even if she didn’t get the approval of her estranged father, “I got the approval of my mother,” she says. “She always instilled in me that ‘Whatever you want to pursue, you dream about it. You pray for it.’ She really pushed me to pursue medicine.”

 

Luy, who earned her BS Biology from Western Mindanao State University in 2016, was among 50 applicants who bested over a hundred students trying to get into Ateneo de Zamboanga University’s (AdZU) School of Medicine. At the time, she managed to save enough money for one school uniform and a downpayment for her tuition. If she wanted to graduate from medical school, she would have to get a scholarship.

 

At AdZU, she found a scholarship that took care of 50 percent of her tuition. Though it was a big help, it was a struggle coming up with the balance. “They withheld our exam scores when we didn’t settle our fees,” she says. “We didn’t know if we passed or could move on to the next level until we paid the full amount.”

 

In her second year of medical school, she learned about the scholarship from Tzu Chi Foundation, one that covered a student’s entire tuition fees and allowances. It also taught values advocated by Tzu Chi founder, Dharma Master Cheng Yen, through monthly Humanity classes.

 

There were just a couple of hitches: Her classmates, Edil-Joshua Perez Ganas and Andrea Bonafe Ibañez, were applying for it too, and they deserved it as much as she did. She wondered as well if the Buddhist organization would accept a Muslim from an Islam community. “At that time, I thought it would be less likely for me to be chosen as one of their scholars,” she says. “I had this notion that they would pick someone who would willingly submit to their teachings and practices.”

 

“But my faith was unshaken,” she says. “I would continue to pursue my kindergarten dream of becoming a doctor, regardless of where the assistance would come from.”

 

Imagine her surprise then when, at an online meeting attended by the three applicants to learn who the scholarship would go to, Tzu Chi Zamboanga Liaison Officer Dr. Anton Lim named her!

 

“It did not give me happiness right away because my two classmates were in the meeting,” she says. “Why were they there and I was the only one who was mentioned?”

 

That’s because there was more good news: Both Ganas and Ibañez were awarded with scholarships too. Only then could Luy celebrate and sigh in relief. “This is an organization that believes in our aspirations and dreams,” she says, “and they are willing to support us without asking for anything in return.”

 

As a Tzu Chi scholar, she felt a genuine sense of belonging. “Little by little, I realized that Tzu Chi embraces inclusivity, kindness, and camaraderie across religions. It’s not religion but being human that unites us.”

 

Even as a student, Luy fulfilled her dream of helping others in need by participating in Tzu Chi’s medical missions and outreach programs in far-flung areas. Three years ago, in one of Tzu Chi Zamboanga’s programs to provide prosthesis to poor amputees, she took the measurements of a little girl who was bullied because she had no right leg. When the prosthesis was made, she went back to help the young patient get used to her new artificial limb.

 

A year later, Tzu Chi Zamboanga volunteer Harvey Yap sent her a video of the little girl. “She had grown and she could walk properly. And she said ‘Thank you, Doc Rizma!’” says Luy in tears. “It’s something I didn’t mind doing because that’s what we do in the hospital all the time. But people are so grateful and appreciative of the little that you do for them.”

 

Luy, who graduated from AdZU’s School of Medicine in January, is spending time with her family before she tackles the board exam. Ask her today why she wants to be a doctor, and her answer is no longer one of of defiance, but of peace of mind and heart.  

 

“I realize that was not the right motivation,” she says of wanting to prove unsupportive relatives wrong. “In Islam, you are asked, ‘Why do you want to be a doctor? Why do you want to be a teacher? Why do we give to charity? Why do we cure the poor?’ To worship Him. That is our sole purpose.”

They made it! (From left), Tzu Chi scholars Edil-Joshua Perez Ganas, Andrea Bonafe Ibañez, and Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy graduate from Ateneo de Zamboanga University’s School of Medicine. They made it! (From left), Tzu Chi scholars Edil-Joshua Perez Ganas, Andrea Bonafe Ibañez, and Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy graduate from Ateneo de Zamboanga University’s School of Medicine.
Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy was in kindergarten when she first announced her intention to be a doctor someday. “I want to help,” she says. “That was my mindset.”  Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy was in kindergarten when she first announced her intention to be a doctor someday. “I want to help,” she says. “That was my mindset.”
Flanked by Tzu Chi Zamboanga volunteers Harvey Yap (left) and Grace To (right), and fellow scholars Edil-Joshua Perez Ganas and Andrea Bonafe Ibañez (second and third from left), Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy felt a genuine sense of belonging in the Tzu Chi community. “Tzu Chi embraces inclusivity, kindness, and camaraderie across religions. It’s not religion but being human that unites us.” Flanked by Tzu Chi Zamboanga volunteers Harvey Yap (left) and Grace To (right), and fellow scholars Edil-Joshua Perez Ganas and Andrea Bonafe Ibañez (second and third from left), Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy felt a genuine sense of belonging in the Tzu Chi community. “Tzu Chi embraces inclusivity, kindness, and camaraderie across religions. It’s not religion but being human that unites us.”
Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy receives a stethoscope from Tzu Chi Zamboanga volunteer Harvey Yap. Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy receives a stethoscope from Tzu Chi Zamboanga volunteer Harvey Yap.
As a Tzu Chi scholar, Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy gets to attend Humanity classes, gatherings that inculcate values espoused by Tzu Chi founder Dharma Master Cheng Yen. As a Tzu Chi scholar, Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy gets to attend Humanity classes, gatherings that inculcate values espoused by Tzu Chi founder Dharma Master Cheng Yen.
Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy joins a home visitation with Tzu Chi scholars and volunteers. Rizma Kila Uckung-Luy joins a home visitation with Tzu Chi scholars and volunteers.
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