First Impressions – Ateneo Task Force Ondoy and Fairview

This was the first day of volunteering as a group for the members of The Foundation.  It was also the first time many of us were meeting each other.  We all came together as friends of friends (of friends) with the common goal of helping those that were less fortunate.  Under the adopted name of “Team Canila,” we headed out with our minds set on putting in work.

Our first stop was to Ateneo de Manila in Quezon City to join up with the Ateneo Task Force Ondoy.  We had heard of a collection center that was highly organized and in need of volunteers at Ateneo and decided to give it a shot.  Team Canila arrived at Ateneo with 3 vehicles and 11 volunteers.  Upon arrival, we were surprised by the amount of volunteers that were already looking for work.  It was a true testament to the human spirit of both Filipino and foreigner.

After only half an hour of waiting, we were called up to be deployed.  We brought our vehicles to the deployment area and filled each with as much bread, eggs, juice, and water as we could and we were on our way.  The caravan took off and headed towards a small community in Fairview, Quezon City where we arrived at a Barangay that was sponsored by Gawad Kalinga.  Eventually, we ended up at a small chapel where locals, alongside GK members, were working to put together food packs (plastic bags full of food) together to be given out to the victims in that community.

First arrival - we began unloading our deployed items from Ateneo

Our mission was to separate all the food we were given from the collection center at Ateneo into individual food packs.  From those donations, we were able to create about 200 food packs!  The Gawad Kalinga group gave us individual bags of rice to pair with the food packs.  We loaded our vehicles again and we were ready to go.  A few of the local GK Leaders then escorted us by car to another community about 15 minutes away where we would drop off the newly-assembled food packs for distribution.

The short drive brought us to a bridge that served as the entrance to the community.  The bridge went over a river that obviously had been the major source of flooding in the area.  Passing over the bridge, all you could see in front of you was complete and utter DEVASTATION.  It was almost as if walking into a war zone.  Concrete buildings were toppled over.  The street was of a light brown hue due to the mud and murky waters that had covered it days earlier.  The residents had begun piling up trash and debris from the torn buildings on the side of the road.  Broken tree branches littered the sides of the road as well.

Garbage from flood-torn homes

One of the few buildings left standing in the community

A short drive through the community led us to the chapel.  We unloaded bottles of water, the food packs, and the rice packs and presented them to the leaders of the chapel who would be in charge of distributing the packs in an orderly manner to the victims.

With our mission complete, we decided to take a walk through the community to see firsthand the devastation caused by the floods.  As the sun set and it began to get dark, we realized that the entire community was without electricity.  One of the locals informed us that they had been without electricity for 3 days and had no idea when they would be able to get it back.  Walking by each house, you could tell the people were trying to be as resourceful as possible just to stay alive with what little they had.

The unfortunate scenes that we were all witness to on this day would wake us up to the stark realization that our work was not yet done and that there were bound to be many other communities in desperate need of manpower and donations.  Little did we know, Typhoon Pepeng (Parma) was on its way.

written by Ed Pascasio (San Jose, CA, USA / Makati)

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