DSWD needs 250 more volunteers

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-7) needs at least 250 volunteers as well as more water and food to deliver to Typhoon Ruby victims in northern Cebu and Samar.

Shalaine Marie S. Lucero, DSWD-7 assistant regional director for operations, said there were 343 volunteers working in the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC), the old Sacred Heart School building in barangay Carreta, Cebu City and Petroni Warehouse in Mandaue City as of 4 p.m. yesterday.

Lucero said they need an additional 250 volunteers at the Sacred Heart building.

“The kids would cut up and hand the plastic to the women who would repack while the men would carry the sacks of food packs,” Lucero told Cebu Daily News.

She said donations can be dropped off at their DSWD-7 field office on M.J. Cuenco Avenue, Cebu City.

Students of the Mandaue City College help repack goods for typhoon victims at the basement of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC). (CDN PHOTO/ JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Welcome

Lucero asked for donors to give ready-to-eat or canned food.

She also discouraged donating used clothing and other used items since it is prohibited under the law.

As of 10 a.m yesterday, there were still no international donations that arrived in the Benito Ebuen Airbase or the Cebu International Port (CIP).

Lucero said international donations are welcome and the regulatory agencies are ready to process the donations.

DSWD-7 sent 38,252 food packs since last Monday in northern Cebu. There were 23,654 food packs that were ready for delivery yesterday.

Of that number, 2,500 food packs were delivered to Madridejos town, 400 food packs to San Remigio town and 29 food packs in Mandaue City.

Lucero said the loading of goods for Bantayan and Camotes Islands was ongoing yesterday afternoon.

She said they sent 3,040 food packs to Borongan in eastern Samar and 2,496 food packs in Catarman, northern Samar via C-130 planes.

She said they are targeting 10 flights a day to eastern Samar and delivering 600,000 family relief packs to the affected areas in two weeks.

The AFP Central Command (Centcom) delivered 4,464 relief packs to Catarman and Borongan as of noon yesterday.

Commodore Lyndon Ruiz of the Philippine Navy was tasked by Centcom to relay information on relief operations to the media at their One-Stop Shop in the MIP Lounge in the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, where other government agencies and private organizations involved in relief operations are stationed.