HIGALA COVID-19 RESPONSE
By: Herna Francis Mae B. Tano
After our pilot distribution at Mahogany Village, we thought that it would be the end of our journey. In the month of May, on the news were the harvested crops of the farmers that were put to waste because markets were closed or had limited numbers of customers. At that moment, they had a lot of crops, but there were not enough customers buying them to sustain their needs in return. Mostly have already rotten because of the low demand. From this, we learned that low scale farmers are greatly affected by the pandemic. They have little to no income during the starting months of the crisis because the majority are working from home, classes are suspended, going to public places are prohibited and only one member of the family is allowed to go for groceries and other important errands.
These farmers are living in far flung areas where access to sanitation is limited. According to our interview, they are having a hard time to transport their products to the city because of the implementation of Enhanced Community Quarantine. Many of their crops, if not transported, are left unsold to the point that they already feed them to their animals just for them not to be called as wasted. So, our team decided to also give attention to the farmerettes of Barangay Baikingon, a hinterland in Cagayan de Oro. Most of them are not land owners relying on their low wages making it hard for them to afford even the basic sanitary essentials and this have made them vulnerable to the crisis. Majority of the female farmers are also senior citizens but are dependent on the farming. From this, we conducted another round of donation drive. We took an extra effort to strengthen our marketing strategies and external linkages because we needed more support from our stakeholders. The moment we reached the target money, the following day we distributed it to the beneficiaries. It was an hour ride from the city proper. With the help of their local government unit, we were able to pull off the distribution smoothly at their barangay hall.
From the overwhelming support of the stakeholders, we were able to reach more communities with the help of the people who believed in this cause. After our distribution in Barangay Baikingon, we also gave attention to the children communities most especially the Children in Conflict with the Law in Tahanan ng Kabataan at Barangay Lumbia and the victims of abuse in Home Care for the Girls in barangay Macanhan. Based on our community scanning, the children who are in need of clothes, milk, sanitary essentials and specific gender-based needs such as sanitary napkins and undergarments. With these identified needs, we did another crowdsourcing using our online platforms to gather pre-loved clothes and other sanitary essentials to provide the needs of the underprivileged kids. After the distribution for the children sector, we have also distributed sanitary essentials and sectoral-based needs to the mentally-challenged individuals in the House of Hope foundation and the elderlies at Golden Home Foundation Inc. They are the part of the forgotten sectors in our society in this time of crisis and this has drawn our attention into them. We have observed that the majority of the efforts of the LGUs and the NGOs are focused on community or sectoral-based. With this, we have seen the problem for the homeless who do not belong to any barangay. They have not received any support plus they are susceptible to the virus because they cannot afford basic sanitary essentials, even masks, which is prevalent in this ongoing health crisis.
Through our Donation on Wheels, we have reached the PWDs and essential workers whose jobs are primarily on the streets. We gave food packs and sanitary essentials to these people in order to address the gap. The youth-led initiative Andam Higala reached over 7 communities from various sectors to help address the need of sanitary essentials most especially for families who belong to financially-challenged groups. This initiative sparked inspiration to many more initiatives, most especially the inclusion of sanitary essentials to the relief packs given for those families who are under strict community isolation. These are just some of the basic needs in this time of pandemic but we need to consider that there are still people who cannot sustainably afford these because of the need to survive a day with food on their tables.
Keywords: Donation Drive, COVID-19 Response, beneficiaries, vulnerable sector, initiative