‘Ambag ng kabataan’: Pasig youth help neediest in barangay during pandemic

MANILA, Philippines – “Ano ang ambag mo? (What’s your contribution?)”

When netizens started asking that question at the onset of the coronavirus lockdown, the answer of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) ng Barangay Maybunga in Pasig City was to establish the #AmbagNgKabataan advocacy, originally #BeatThatCOVID.

The initiative’s purposes are to advocate youth leadership and involvement, and empower the youth by giving them an active role in the community.

“#AmbagNgKabataan aims to prove that the youth holds up to its titular role of being the hope of the future,” SK Maybunga Chairperson Patricia Mae Torres said. 

Helping the needy

Through #AmbagNgKabataan, members of the SK Maybunga helped the neediest in their barangay including teenage solo parents, breastfeeding mothers, and indigent families through relief assistance projects.

To strengthen the advocacy, the council reached out to youth organizations in the barangay to help lead relief operations. (READ: With relief goods running out, Cebuano youth group helps raise funds and aid)

For the youth organizations to be prepared, SK Maybunga Councilors have set meetings with the leaders of their constituent youth organizations to orient them with the proper operating procedures. 

With the help of youth organizations, the SK was able to identify the neediest citizens, repack, and distribute the goods.

To be precise with the distribution, a house-to-house survey was conducted beforehand to check who qualifies as recipients.

Youth Empowerment Community Organization President (YECO) Jehwie Bantillo described their organization’s struggles while doing the community assessment.

“It’s hard to balance the ideas of giving everyone aid and selecting the neediest in the community, but we made sure that everyone is given the chance to (be on the list),” he said.

Making it possible

When it comes to funding the program, the SK depended on its 10% budget allocation from the barangay, and citizen donations.

“We decided to realign the budget dedicated to our supposed projects to respond to the pandemic,” SK Maybunga Treasurer Aubrey Garcia said.

Normally a long procurement process is required to have the lowest bidders supply civil work projects, but the Government Procurement Policy Board allowed negotiated procurements for pandemic response starting March 26, enabling the SK to acquire the goods faster.

Once the goods were available, the SK then faced the overwhelming task of repacking the relief goods for distribution together with youth volunteers.

SK Maybunga Councilor Roselyn Constantino shared how they turned the repacking process into a game to encourage others to make quick progress.

“We divided ourselves into two teams and started a race. Whoever repacks faster wins the game,” she said. 

Through the game, they were able to finish at least 30 packs in 5 to 10 minutes, with each one containing all of the essentials for the relief distribution.

By March 30, the SK was ready to distribute the first wave of relief goods to residents in the barangay.

Reaching out

Hoping to reach every resident in the area and ensure their safety, SK Maybunga and youth volunteers equipped themselves with face masks, gloves, and alcohol, and distributed the goods via a door-to-door process in a bid to avoid a mass gathering.

With the relief goods distributed by batch, those who weren’t able to receive theirs were listed in SK Maybunga’s recipients for the next wave of distributions. 

So far, the group has provided food packs and vegetable bundles to 6,000 families, diapers and biscuits to more than 1,000 kids, welfare kits to more than 10,000 households, 300 personal protective equipment sets to medical frontliners, and three waves of supplies to area and curfew monitoring frontliners.

“It is fulfilling to help the community with the most that I can do as a youth,” Damayan Youth Volunteer Jeffrey Collo said.

Beyond relief

As a contribution to the development of Pasig City, members of the Sangguniang Kabataan ng Maybunga Council also assisted with the house-to-house payout of the supplemental cash assistance program of the city government. 

Aside from relief operations, youth organizations also launched religious and entertainment programs for the residents. (READ: While classes are on hold, students find ways to help affected communities)

LODI Ka Organization of Villa Concha was able to continue the annual tradition of the community’s Santacruzan in May by retaining prayer meetings and household transfers of religious statues while following safety measures. (READ: The spirit of Flores de Mayo)

To uplift the spirits of the residents during quarantine, Kabataan ng Damayan (Damayan Youth Organization) has been creating online dance videos and distributing biscuits to children residing in their area.

As Metro Manila eases quarantine restrictions, SK Maybunga is creating a recovery and adaptation plan for their constituents.

“To move forward to continually help our constituents, there is also a need to shift to new programs,” Torres, the SK Maybunga Chairperson, said. 

Youth organizations have also pledged to help the community to continue the #AmbagNgKabataan advocacy.

Acknowledging those who helped make the project possible, the SK Maybunga Council thanked the youth organizations and volunteers for putting in the effort to help residents in need.

“From a mere nine-man council, we got (helping) hands from around 80 people throughout the whole program,” Torres said.

The council asks the youth to be part of the ongoing advocacy by posting their contributions in fighting the effects of the pandemic on social media using #AmbagNgKabataan. People may track the advocacy’s progress here. – Rappler.com