Volunteer group helping less fortunate amid Covid-19 crisis

| Photo from Bayanihan Mission Facebook page.

CEBU CITY, Philippines–Bayanihan Mission, a nationwide volunteer group, is joining the fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) here.

Their mission: To help the less fortunate during this crisis.

Alex Llamasares, the point person of Bayanihan Mission in Cebu, says that the group is “a private civilian initiative which aims to extend help to those are in need through health education and food security.”

According to its website, the volunteers are “a group of civilians who aim to develop a nationwide network of people who can prepare Home Quarantine Food Packs for our less fortunate fellow countrymen.”

“The initial goal of the group is to clear the streets of vendors, sikad, habal-habal drivers and other daily wage earners so we can mitigate the spread of the virus in our community. We do this by explaining to them the health risks and by providing them with food packs that can sustain them for 2 to 3 days,” said Llamasares.

Bayanihan Mission Cebu chapter is partnering with some noted non-government organizations so that they will be able to locate those who are really in need.

“For beneficiaries, we are very selective with our recipients. And as much as we want to provide for everyone, we enforce our priority list. But we also do some special projects like helping Tatay Francisco, the 87-year-old street vendor who went viral few weeks ago. We’re also partnering with established NGOs like Fundlife International in Mandaue targeting urban poor families to prevent child trafficking; and with another group of private individuals called Dinner Packs Operations Group for the Streets (DOGS) – Cebu which feeds the homeless people sheltered in San Nicolas and San Roque gyms,” she added.

The group started mid-March and since then has gathered more or less 300 volunteers from around the Philippines.

Here in Cebu, they have at least 100 volunteers who help in preparing the grocery items and deliver them to beneficiaries.

Bayanihan Mission Cebu still welcomes more volunteers and encourages those who still have extra funds to donate for this cause.

For more information about the group, one can check their Facebook page, Bayanihan Mission.  /bmjo