Batch10, 11, 12: Barangay Sampiruhan
1in3out. JollyBox. Collaborating for the very first time and distributing to our biggest crowd yet: 300 families! Sharing the same mission, we can reach farther and help more if we combine our resources, dedication and hard work. We hope that this successful event will lead to more future team-ups, and inspire other organizations to help us help them.
We visited Barangay Sampiruhan, a small town in Calamba Laguna, a 2-hour drive from Manila. Through guidance from the local government, we set-up in a covered basketball court with the help of many friendly volunteers. The event was well-organized with family representatives scheduled to show up in batches. Tried our best with social distancing and encouraged everyone to wear a mask. Expecting 300 families meant we have to work with the most clothes in a single distribution, depleting all 15 boxes of clothes we have. That’s over 4,000 pieces of clothes: sorted, bagged and distributed! While JollyBox handed out their relief packs containing rice, ramen and canned goods.
We would like to thank JollyBox for giving us the opportunity to work with them. They have been one of the few groups we look up to with the weekly distribution they have all over the Philippines. Stay tuned for a new collaboration as we do our share in helping the victims of Typhoon Odette.
After a tiring and successful event in the Barangay Sampiruhan Multi-Purpose Hall in Cardinal Village, our contact and friend Ms. Cath invited us back to her house for a delicious lunch. As a token of appreciation for all the help and hard work Ms Cath has provided for us, we decided to distribute the left-over bags of clothes we have to her neighborhood. On an empty lot off the unpaved Doña Regina road is where we set up a small make-up donation distribution. It can’t get any more personal for Ms Cath than this, as we handed out donated books and clothes to the kids that roam her neighborhood. What started out as a cloudy afternoon, the sun eventually came out and joined the kids’ smiles to brighten up everyone’s day.
Thank you Ms Cath! Hope the people of Doña Regina and Sampiruhan enjoy the gifts. Looking forward working with you again in the future.
We've added the video of Elsa Ramos, one of the donation recipients we encountered in our trip to Barangay Sampiruhan, Calamba, Laguna last month. Just a quick chat to see how life is treating her in the middle of this pandemic. Things got very emotional as her stories got more personal. This is reality in many parts of the Philippines. This is as real as it's gonna get. Hopefully this is a reminder not to take even the smallest things in life for granted.
This event was so big that we have to combine Batch 10, 11 and 12. All the clothes from donors and sponsors who helped ship the boxes from those batches. All for this, salamat!. Can’t forget all our members and volunteers that made this distribution easier than expected.