Monday, August 13, 2012

Rotary Donations After Manila Flooding

Our Rotary Club of Taguig Fort Bonifacio (RI District 3830), through the efforts of President Rose Antonio, partnered with RC Makati President Reuben Valerio, in distributing food items to victims of flooding in Lower Bicutan, Taguig City, last Friday, August 10.

From left: RC Makati President Reuben Valerio, clubmate Carmen Penalosa, Rose's son, President Rose, me, clubmate Eric Lucero, and Past District Governor (PDG) Sid Garcia. Most of these photos are from President Rose's camera.


It was my first visit to the RC Makati building actually and I was impressed. Nice, clean building, with a good garden and wide parking lot at the back. It is located in Camia Street, Barangay Guadalope Viejo, Makati. At the back of Metro Club in Rockwell, and just beside the Barangay Hall and Health Center. The tall buildings of Rockwell Center behind the parking lot are not far.


Had a short chat with President Reuben. He said that for their club, money was not a problem as they received lots of cash donations from club members, also from their brother clubs abroad. District Governor-Elect (DGE) Robert Kuan for instance, who is also one of their clubmates, eceived a call from his classmate DGE from an RI District in Taiwan and asked how things are in the country. His classmate simply donated $5,000 just for the relief-donations. Cool.

There were four of us from our club, plus President Rose's son and driver. This is her pick up, full of food items for distribution. Eric's car is nice here, small but full of items for donation. I hitched a ride with him.


This is the small village in Lower Bicutan that we visited. The floodwater has not receded yet, two days after the heavy rains have stopped. Lower photo, these children are in danger of getting leptospirosis and other water-borne diseases as the water is muddy and dirty.


A short but orderly line of people, mostly mothers, came in front of the pick up. No disorder, people just lined up, got the food packages, and walked away.


The Barangay Health Worker (BHW), a city hall employee assigned to barangays to provide health and sanitation programs and services, estimated that there were less than 100 households in this area. The food packages we brought were just enough for them. Plus extra food packages for other affected families outside of this small village, delivered at the BHW office.

We were done distributing the goods in about 20 minutes. Thanks to my club, thanks to Rotary Club of Makati. We have done our small share in helping the flood affected families.

Our District 3830 through the untiring efforts of District Governor Sue Sta. Maria, also conducted various relief and charity work in other parts of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces. Before the new round of heavy rains last Wednesday afternoon, I delivered some used clothes and shoes to the District drop off point in Crown Tower, HV dela Costa, Makati.

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