Relief: Urban poor families affected by CoVID-19 lockdown in Metro Manila

Dear brothers and sisters,

Blessings of peace.

While CoVID-19 has affected families globally, the people that fall extremely below the poverty threshold have become even more vulnerable. In the Philippines, lockdowns have been declared all over the country starting last 15 March. Starting from Metro Manila and gradually extended to the whole Luzon island group.

In Metro Manila alone, urban poor communities in shanties are facing extreme hunger as the month-long quarantine shut down company operations, public transportation, among others. People are without jobs, without savings and without money to buy basic food and other essentials.

My team and I decided to launch a donation drive to solicit funds to purchase relief goods for severely affected areas in Metro Manila. The beneficiary is primarily the areas where Zone One Tondo Organization is operating in.

They are a people’s organization supporting the marginalized in their campaign for housing, health, education, among others in the cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela (cities inside Metro Manila). We hope to solicit sufficient funds to support a fraction of the affected communities, initially set at 1,000 families with USD 20 relief pack/family for 1 month.

Once we hit our financial goal, we will increase the number of families and reach out to other areas supported by faith-based organizations. All of these efforts will depend on the amount solicited from our network and in other countries.

Our donors will receive regular updates:

1. Status of the donation drive - with amounts donated

2. Reports from the partner organization regarding the status of the communities

3. Status of purchases, delivery, repacking and distribution

4. Stories from the ground - including photos and personal experiences of volunteers

5. Financial report and access to a google drive link upon request

6. Other information (please let us know if there’s any other info you would like to know)

Feel free to reach out to us for any concern about this project.

Our email: [email protected]

Please accept our gratitude and we hope we can weather the CoVID-19 pandemic together.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Candy C. Diez

Visions for Peace