Gota de Leche (Spanish for “drop of milk”), the first and oldest nonsectarian charitable organization in the country, was founded in 1905 by the Asociacion Feminista Filipina, a women’s movement in the Philippines. At that time, women didn’t have equal rights and were dependent on their husbands.  This group, devoted to mother-and-child health, included educated women such as Concepcion Felix (the first Filipina to earn a college degree), Librada Avelino (founder of Centro Escolar University), Justice Natividad Almeda Lopez (the first Filipina to practice law  and president of Gota de Leche for more than 40 years) and Filomena Francisco (the first woman pharmacist).

Part of a worldwide movement to help children whose mothers couldn’t breastfeed, Gota de Leche (also known by its institutionalized name La Proteccion de la Infancia, Inc. or LPI) established, among many things, a milk station for infants since the number of cases of beriberi, malnutrition, and child mortality was alarmingly high. Its impressive operation involved cow owners who donated extra milk (bottled and delivered to Gota de Leche in calesas).  San Miguel provided the ice to prevent spoilage and electricity and water was free. Famous Dr. Fernando Calderon, a leading Filipino obstetrician during the American colonial period and the first director of the Philippine General Hospital, also lent his time to the institution.

During its heyday, Gota de Leche fed 500 to 1,000 babies per week. Today, during feeding sessions held every Thursday (with a volunteer pediatrician on hand), its feeding program provides 2 kgs. of powdered milk per person  and every month, the institution spends a total of PhP60,000 on ten 25-kg. sacks of milk. Once the babies are no longer malnourished, a 4-man staff monitors the height and weight of children who “graduate” from the feeding program.

The iconic, 2-storey building which housed this movement (which moved here from its original home along Evangelista St. in Quiapo) was designed by architects Arcadio Arellano and his younger U.S.-educated brother Juan Arellano (he would later designed the Manila Central Post Office Building and the Metropolitan Theater).  The building, patterned after the Osepedale Degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents), a still-existing orphanage designed by renowned Italian Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi from 1419 to 1427 in Florence (Italy), was adapted for the tropics.

Erected on a parcel of land donated by bachelor industrialist and philanthropist Teodoro R. Yangco, it was completed in 1917 and survived World War II, earthquakes, fires and floods.  To the right of the building’s colonnaded, semicircular arched main entrance is a 5-bay loggia (Brunelleschi’s building had 9 bays) with round, monolithic columns with Classical capitals supporting a semicircular arch.  Above each column are circular tondi (roundels) featuring reliefs of infants in swaddling clothes (symbolizing the function of the building) set in spandrels (the space between arches).

In 2002, the dilapidated building was restored to its original 1917 appearance by a team led by Arch. Augusto Villalon (his grandfather Dr. Jose Fabella was once Gota de Leche president), a member of the HCS Board of Trustees and the project’s lead conservation architect and project coordinator. The rental building, an unsympathetic addition attached to it in the recent past, was removed, providing vehicular access and clear sight lines from the street.  The original landscaping was also restored by landscape architect Ms. Ani Katrina de Leon.  In repairing the dilapidated building, traditional crafts and skills were undertaken within a clear and low-intervention conservation framework.

The following year, this restoration project was awarded an honorable mention by  Dr. Richard Engelhardt, regional adviser for culture in the Asia-Pacific, during the UNESCO Asia Pacific Heritage Award for Culture Heritage Conservation, thus putting the Philippines’ heritage efforts in the world map and the building in the international heritage roster. A part of the building’s space is leased to a woman’s rights non-government organization and its main facilities and grounds are rented out for private functions.

Gota de Leche: 859 Sergio H. Loyola St. (formerly Lepanto St.), Sampaloc, Manila. Tel: (632) 309-4562.

Heritage Conservation Society: G/F, Museo Pambata Bldg., Roxas Blvd., Ermita, Manila. Tel: (632) 353-4494.  Fax: (632) 522-2497.  Website:  www.heritage.org.ph.