WISHING for Davao City to achieve herd immunity by December sounds like a lofty goal.
But the strong public-private sector partnership of Dabawenyos, a tried-and-tested force through the years, may just make this dream come true.
These past few months, dynamic organizations, companies, and private individuals have actively partnered with the City Government of Davao to expedite our city’s Covid-19 vaccination program.
One such organization is the Stella Maris Academy of Davao Alumni Association (SMADAA), which recently facilitated two rollouts for the vaccination of 3,789 Dabawenyos last August 2021. A third rollout is scheduled in September.
Aptly entitled “One Good Jab,” the SMADAA vaccination program was a brainchild of two friends, a Marisian and a Gaisano Mall of Davao (GMall Davao) executive, who wanted to help Davao City achieve its herd immunity before the end of the year. Their goal was to provide access to vaccines to more people in a shorter time. With the same vision, both aspired for a “quality and successful vaccine rollout with a good reach while developing social responsibility in the community”.
With the resources and facilities of GMall Davao, and the guidance of the Davao City Health Office (CHO), the SMADAA was tapped for its strong network to lead a pilot vaccination rollout targeting the A4 category under small and medium enterprises owned and operated by Marisians.
Prime movers
The SMADAA vaccination program was competently supervised by its Executive Committee members, which included James Despabiladeras who was tasked to coordinate with the GMall Davao as the vaccination center and the CHO for all the supplies and Dr. Jetty Jet Lu as the vaccine center chief who provided the medical team and ensured the smooth and safe operations of every station in the vaccination center.
Meanwhile, the vaccination executive manager Ana Leigh Caguiat passionately led the team of 65 volunteers to run the vaccination center efficiently.
The Board of Trustees of SMADAA, on the other hand, consolidated all the nominees for the vaccination through the batch representatives while Mae Ann Cortez and Angieleen Lou Aportadera did the meticulous job of registration and the scheduling of vaccinees.
Spirit of volunteerism
“The most challenging part in organizing such a great endeavor was to find sponsors to finance the project since SMADAA is a non-profit organization. Luckily, the organizing committee received a warm reception and without even asking, donations and food pledges poured in,” said Caguiat.
“We were also blessed to have been able to pool a sizable number of volunteers who were willing to share their time with us at the vaccination site,” she added.
The selfless volunteers consisted of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other allied medical services, as well as members of the Filipino Chinese Firefighters Foundation Davao and the Armed Forces of the Philippines Reserve Command.
“For those in the private sector who wish to help the City of Davao achieve its herd immunity, we encourage them to come up with the same rollout. They can always talk to the CHO, or they can partner with malls that are currently running as vaccination centers. A minimum of 500 to a maximum of 850 vaccinees can be accommodated per day,” explained Caguiat.
Doing your part
According to Dr. Lu, the most demanding part of organizing the rollout is coming up with vaccinees and scheduling them to avoid confusion. This is highly encouraged as the walk-in system of vaccination may turn into a “super spreader” event. Other things to provide would be backup medical supplies and medicines.
“Organizing and running a vaccination center is laborious, tiring, time-consuming, and draining, to say the least. But we must try and do our best to be able to extend our services in any way we can to assist the City of Davao and the country,” stressed Caguiat.
“One of the fervent wishes we have in SMADAA is to see the alumni family unite efforts for the same cause. Not only were we able to achieve this feat by reinvigorating all fifty-three batches through this activity but we also became instruments of help to one another. The Resbakuna activities we have in collaboration with GMall Davao and CHO may be temporary but through all these, we see Marisians still shining through,” enthused SMADAA president Sharmila Barretto-Ong.
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Special thanks to Zef Delos Reyes of Zing Creative for the photos.
E-mail the author at mom.about.town.dvo@gmail.com. Visit http://momabouttowndavao.blogspot.com/.