MANILA, Philippines — In the new normal, doing good is much more digital.
In time of pandemic, many millennials are showing their support for the country’s health workers by using social media to raise funds for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as face masks, face shields and hazmat suits.
A eureka moment
Last March, five friends in Quezon City got together in a eureka moment to start a PPE fund drive for the country’s frontline healthcare workers.
According to 26-year-old Jonas Tamayo, it was his friend Chabeli Cua who came up with the idea. Meanwhile, their friends Frankie Cu and Ysa Syyap handle the finances and logistics while Tamayo is in-charge of communications. The group’s initial target was to help around 5-10 hospitals.
We have distributed these various PPEs to over 100 hospitals and groups with the same beneficiary as ours, such as the Office of the Vice President’s Angat Buhay program. “Social media has played a big role in helping raise awareness about our donation drive. It was also vital in terms of gathering more hospital contacts from different people who have seen our posts,” Tamayo said.
Over 60,000 meals for frontliners
Cloud Eats founders Kimberly Yao and Iacopo Rovera have been helping frontline workers by providing them with hot meals.
Cloud Eats is the largest cloud kitchen company in the Philippines.
We gladly offered our services to help and feed the hard-working and hungry, Yao added.
Yao and Rovera have distributed all their donations to partner hospitals and LGUs. It helps that a lot of our family and friends share our materials on their personal pages, group chats, and public groups, Yao said.
Tulong Ilocano
24-year-old Kitkat Pajaro, along with her group of friends from Ilocos Sur, started a fundraising campaign called TULONG ILOCANO.
It is a COVID-19 fund drive for frontliners based in Ilocos Sur. According to Pajaro, the group wanted to create a platform for other Ilocanos like themselves who want to help frontline medical workers in COVID-19 hospitals in Ilocos Sur. We could purchase necessary medical supplies and various PPE to three designated COVID-19 hospitals in Ilocos Sur, including Gabriela Silang General Hospital, Magsingal District Hospital, and Narvacan District Hospital, Pajaro said.
To push their fund drive, Pajaro and her friends used three major social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
