Location: Philippines (Taguig City)

From Bella Joy Bardollas:

Days ago, a student of mine sent me an email. She's a youth volunteer in our city who helps the local government in packaging and distribution of goods in our area. The email that I received contains an appeal for donations of food for the youth volunteers. I immediately had a meeting with them to ask if they've reached out to the local government unit (LGU) regarding their concern, and they informed me that they haven't heard anything from them until now. They felt neglected.

My student, together with other youth volunteers, are doing their best to combat the spread of the virus. Aside from distribution of relief goods, they also conduct short seminars to families about the pandemic. Moreover, they roam around different areas to check if everyone is following the curfew. The email that I got from my student, pleading for food, only shows that despite their service to the people, the local government failed to provide the basic and their most important need---food.

When I got the email, I really felt so bad, that it made me conduct a fund raising activity through the small business that I own. It is a small craft business that was also forced to shutdown because of the events due to the pandemic. The amount of money that was raised was not enough to cover the needs of these volunteers.

With enough funds, I plan to hire restaurant cooks (whom have also lost their jobs because of the lockdown) in our area to prepare food. By doing this, we are also helping those workers who have lost their jobs, and at the same time, provide food for the youth volunteers of our city. My student, together with other youth, continue to be active volunteers and I really admire their dedication, sincerity and passion toward helping. I admired them more when I found out that they are doing it even if they don't get much help from the LGU. I want to help them by providing their basic needs. I want to serve my fellow youth by becoming their bridge to people or groups that might be able to help them.

Support Needed

We need food for our youth volunteers in the city. Upon our initial meeting, we are in need of at least 1500 USD, as we will also try to provide food for other youth volunteers in other areas. We are currently in contact with these volunteers to check how are they doing with their work in response to the pandemic. We also plan to identify and hire cooks whom will be in-charge of the food preparation. We find this practical and safe, rather than buying cooked meals. Moreover, this can also be a way of helping these cooks who also lost their jobs because of the lockdown. While we provide food for the volunteers, we will also try to raise more funds to keep this project of feeding the volunteers going until the lockdown is over. One of which is to encourage food businesses to donate ingredients or rice (a staple food in the Philippines), to this project.

Other support: Space for online convenings (e.g. GoToMeeting)

For more information, contact covid19@unmgcy.org