MANILA (UCAN): Ateneo de Manila University’s disaster response and management (DReaM) team teamed up with Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (Church at the service of the people) and the Tanging Yaman (only treasure) Foundation to help poor communities and medical frontline staff in far-flung communities Visayas and Mindanao regions of the Philippines’.
The DReaM team has been Ateneo’s main engine for relief operations and rehabilitation work since Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy) hit the Philippines in September 2009, affecting 900,000 people, killing 250 and injuring 400.
Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan and the Tanging Yaman Foundation are non-profit organisations committed to serving the Philippine Church through disaster response and academic scholarships.
The Jesuit groups announced that as of May 30 they had collected 103.4 million pesos ($16 million) from benefactor, most of them members and alumni of the university.
Jesuit Father Manoling Francisco, the founder of the Tanging Yaman Foundation, said donors have funded five programmes including food packs for the poor, personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers and shelter for the homeless.
“We thank our generous benefactors, whose names have been gathered and placed on our altar and for whom we celebrate our Masses for thanksgiving,” Father Francisco said.
He said these efforts proved that the Church is alive through its partners and volunteers.
“United in faith in our Lord Jesus, we are the Church. We thank the Spirit of God for using and enabling us, the Body of Christ, to multiply the loaves and fish in order to feed the multitudes,” the priest said.
The groups also purchased 600 tons of rice, 65 tons of dried fish and more than 100 tons of vegetables from farmers and fishermen outside Manila and distributed them in more than 250 communities across the country.
As we celebrate the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. The Chaplaincy to Filipino Migrants organises an on-line talk every Tuesday at 9.00pm. You can join us at:
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The Philippine Air Force also distributed facemasks and PPEs from northern Luzon to Zamboanga province in Mindanao.
“We have included our Muslim brothers in our (relief) operations. We thank the Philippine Air Force for delivering the PPE to Mindanao,” Father Francisco said.
He said they distributed 1,150 packed meals a day to feed medical health workers in seven Manila hospitals.
Amid so many deaths due to the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), he said he has desperately searched for God’s presence, finding it in poor parishes that divided and shared their donations to feed poorer families.
“I found him (God) also in doctor friends, who despite their fear of contamination have continued attending to Covid-19 patients. Wherever generosity is, there God is. Wherever fidelity to one’s medical duties triumphs, there too God is,” Father Francisco said.
