A desperate cry for help did not go unheard! There must be something about danger, disease and disaster that melts frigid souls to react positively and dig deep into their pockets.
With the ferocity and feistiness of recent Typhoon Odette still etched in our memory, many cannot just dismiss the untold danger it has caused to thousands of families in the Visayas and Mindanao. Danger because of uprooted trees, possible electrocution due to leaning power posts, and ultimately disease caused by the shortage of potable water and other hygienic hazards. Indeed, disaster then follows!
Among the many souls who heard this cry were the Mirasol Outreach Foundation and Secours Populaire Francis in partnership with Zonta Club of Fort Bonifacio, Friends of Manila Art and Sacred Heart School for Boys Batch ‘85 Foundation Inc. Their beneficiaries include the victims in Purok Cantila, Barangay Poblacion Occidental in Consolacion, in selected barangays of Cebu City and in Barangay Bae, Sibonga.
The massive relief operations were led by Danny Rayos del Sol and his team, which generously provided 10 GI sheets and two kilos of umbrella nails to each of the 55 families in Purok Cantila as well as five families from Jubay, Liloan. This group was also a recipient of six units of water filtration systems.
On behalf of the City of Cebu, Councilor Raymond Garcia also received 130 pieces of water filtration systems intended for the selected barangays of the city. Over at Barangay Bae, 10 pieces of the water filtration systems were distributed at the Oikos Orchard and Farm, in the presence of farm owners Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Resticar, Mr. and Mrs. Celso Pepito, Cebu Artists Inc. (CAI) president Sonia Yrastorza and CAI member Marlone Ylanan.
From the civic clubs segment, the Rotary Club of Cebu, through its dynamic president Jacob Ong and his stalwarts, raised P4M worth of relief for 3,700 families in Cebu.
Together with Shelterbox, the club started monitoring affected families as early as December 2021 when the typhoon ravaged Cebu. The Shelter kits contain tarpaulins, ropes, saw, hammers and solar lights to enable the survivors to start anew. Lucky beneficiaries were Argao, Sibonga towns in southern Cebu, and other parts of the province.
One of Cebu’s progressive and modern bakeries, Caro and Marie did its part by producing bread and biscuits for Cebu’s disaster victims. After 28 rigid days of production, they lined up 20,128 pieces of bread and over 10,000 pieces of biscuits for distribution.
Almost unbelievably, they consumed materials like flour, yeast, sugar, shortening, margarine, butter, powdered milk, salt, vanilla, cheese and chocolate for the lot. Have you started counting the number of kilos involved? Caro and Marie truly appreciate the kind friends who assisted them in this mammoth undertaking: Global Pacific, San Miguel Foods, Ted Madamba, Maricon Banzon-Dans (USA), Mary Jane Lim (Manila) and Grace Ng (Cebu). And of course, to all you Generous Samaritans, may your tribe increase!