Did you know that staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the best ways to fight the virus? Healthcare workers referred to people staying at home as “our wartime air and artillery support. The more people who stay at home, the more chances we have to contain and fight the virus.” Stopping the spread of that deadly disease meant pushing the pause button on daily lives. It was a sacrifice everyone had to make to “flatten the curve” of infection. However, and understandably so, many suffered anxiety because they could not go out and help. Unfortunately, as the virus continued to spread, leaving home only invited more risk than it produced much-needed help for the public.
Beautiful Volunteer Outreach Initiatives in the Philippines
Fortunately, there were several volunteer outreach groups people could support even while remaining inside their own homes. Here were a few of those community initiatives that stepped up to help protect frontliners and daily wage earners.
Better Basics’ Little Big Help
Moha Barakat, owner of the small clothing shop Better Basics, along with her team of seamstresses and a few friends, organized "Little Big Help." It was a fundraising initiative that aimed to raise funds to procure materials to create protective suits for medical frontliners. Their starting goal was to raise forty-five thousand pesos to produce one hundred fifty protective suits.
“As a business, our key resources are our seamstresses, access to fabric, sewing materials, and machines, so when the need for producing and donating protective suits became widespread, we figured that we could somehow help. We just wanted to help a little, beginning with a target of 150 for two hospitals. We started by collaborating with another project, Marisci Fights Back, and now, Better Basics’ lines stay open to our friends and their friends who may need help sourcing suits for various beneficiaries of their choice. We also invited some of our customers at @better.basics to let us know if they need PPE donations so we can match the needs with the supply that we have,” said Barakat.
How to Help: You can read more information on how to support their operations at the official Little Big Help Campaign Portal.
Climb Against Cancer’s Homecooked Meals
Because frontliners had been working around the clock since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, most of them lacked the time to cook and prepare healthy meals for themselves. That was where Climb Against Cancer stepped in. Originally consisting of mountaineers involved in various outreach programs dealing with cancer patients, the group expanded its causes to assist different sectors of society.
Climb Against Cancer members, led by Nini Andrada Sacro, prepared home-cooked meals for frontliners. From the moment the lockdown went into effect, they delivered meals to several hospitals, including the Philippine Heart Center, Philippine General Hospital (PGH), Cardinal Santos Medical Center, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Olivarez General Hospital, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), and Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital.
“This is my first time cooking for our frontliners. I am used to cooking for school kids every time we have a community outreach. I intend to cook as long as people keep supporting our little mission. After I posted about the food packs for the Heart Center, friends and family started sending me donations and food ingredients to cook for our frontliners,” Sacro said.
How to Help: Interested supporters can join the Climb Against Cancer Facebook Group or coordinate directly with Nini Andrada Sacro.
Poveda Hermanas Batch 2004 Donations
The ladies of Poveda Batch 2004 made the most of their stay-at-home stint by organizing a fundraiser for frontliners. They raised more than one million pesos in cash donations. The group used the funds to purchase various medical supplies—such as Indoplas latex gloves, head covers, KN95 and N95 masks, disposable gowns, personal protective equipment (PPE) sets, face shields, and isopropyl alcohol—donating them to more than a dozen hospitals.
How to Help: You can check operational logs, transparent asset balancing, and target drop-off points directly via the official Poveda Hermanas 04 Facebook Page.
2KK Tulong sa Kapwa Kapatid Foundation
The 2KK Tulong sa Kapwa Kapatid Foundation was founded in 2003 by a group of teenagers and started by organizing activities for children in various communities. Over time, 2KK evolved into an organization focused on helping less-privileged youth attain an education.
When the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the Philippines and an enhanced community quarantine was enforced, 2KK wasted no time raising funds for affected families. By March 29, 2020, they had provided two thousand eight hundred meals to communities across twelve different areas in Metro Manila, one thousand fifty meals to frontliners in seven hospitals, and two thousand seventy food packs for daily wage earners and their families (averaging five to seven members per household) in ten different areas.
How to Help: Financial channels and relief-pack donation criteria are updated directly across the digital networks of the 2KK Tulong sa Kapwa Kapatid Foundation.
