PLDT-Smart Foundation partners with women's group to provide face masks, PPEs to frontliners

MANILA, Philippines, June 25, 2020 – PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF), in partnership with the Kababaihan, Kamay ng Kalikasan (KKK), recently distributed over 36,000 protective face masks to frontliners from various organizations and communities to help augment the supply of face masks - necessities in the continuing fight against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

 

Some 500 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) were also donated to the following facilities: Novaliches Hospital, Sta. Ana Hospital, National Center for Mental Health, San Lazaro Hospital, and Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital.

 

Among the recipients of the face masks were the AFP frontliners, Makati Medical Center Foundation for PNP HPG, and various communities affected by COVID-19.

 

"It is an honor for us to help our beloved frontliners by equipping them with the basic necessities, such as face masks and PPEs, to protect them in their battle against COVID-19," said PSF President Ma. Esther O. Santos.

 

"We would like to assure our frontliners that we are here for them and one with them in fighting this pandemic," Santos said.

 

"If every Filipino will wear a face mask, observe physical distancing and practice proper hygiene, we will all have some protection from COVID-19," KKK Founder and Commissioner at Philippine Commission on Women, Sandy Sanchez Montano pointed out.

 

"We are glad to provide reusable, non-woven protective masks produced by women who were severely affected by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to the pandemic," Montano added.

 

The KKK is a program under the Community Health Education Emergency Rescue Services Corp. (CHEERS). It aims to actively help in addressing the spread of COVID-19 while providing a source of sustainable livelihood for women who need to make a living for their families. KKK participants/beneficiaries include women-recipients of 4Ps, solo parents, and those who were affected by the ECQ.

 

A non-profit organization, the PSF fully serves as the social outreach arm of PLDT, Inc. and its wireless subsidiary, Smart Communications Inc. Headed by PLDT and Smart Chairman Manuel V Pangilinan, the PSF created programs focused on education, livelihood and social enterprise, disaster response and recovery, youth arts, and sports development.

 

To know more about the efforts of the PLDT Group in beating the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit https://beta.pldt.com/covid19/.

Kathryn Bernardo | Gatorade ION Newest Brand Ambassador

No matter what we do and what we’re into, one thing that’s a must for everyone from all walks of life is the need for everyday hydration. The risks and dangers of dehydration, especially in a tropical climate such as the Philippines, are all too real—which is why we need to constantly hydrate.

 

Gatorade Ion, the drink that’s best for everyday hydration, takes a step further into promoting this important hydration reminder to all Filipinos by officially welcoming popular young Filipino actress, host, and celebrity Kathryn Bernardo to its ranks as its newest brand ambassador in a catch-up session on Instagram Live last June 20.

 

Bernardo is the perfect personality to endorse Gatorade Ion—with her showbiz schedule, hobbies, and interests keeping her busy and regularly exposed to heat all the time, she always needs fluids to make sure she performs her best. Gatorade Ion’s optimal amount of fluids and ions and formula of low sodium, no preservatives, no artificial flavors, and colors are what keeps non-stop go-getters like her hydrated.

 

“I’m so happy and very honored to be the newest endorser for Gatorade Ion,” said Bernardo. “I believe hydration is very important for anyone, especially in a warm country like the Philippines where everyone is always on-the-go. Gatorade Ion is the best way to help us avoid the dangers of being dehydrated. It is in citrus quench in flavor, which makes it so refreshing on a hot day. It’s my new favorite go-to drink, I swear.”

 

“We’re really excited to have Kathryn aboard for Gatorade Ion,” said IC Sta. Maria, PepsiCo Philippines Marketing Manager for Hydration. “Regular hydration every day is a must, and with her lifestyle, Kathryn is the ideal person to promote the benefits of staying hydrated.”

 

The catch-up session with Bernardo, hosted by her good friend and fellow celebrity Robi Domingo, revealed that she had taken advantage of the quarantine to pursue new activities, such as baking, watching K-dramas, and learning to play the piano, just to name a few.

 

And she also even gave a special message to boyfriend Daniel Padilla, who takes care of Bernardo and her family during the quarantine by bringing them goods and groceries. “Hindi enough and thank you. Grabe lang yung alaga niya [sa aming lahat]. Hindi siya nagkulang—siya talaga yung nagse-set ng bar. I’m really thankful.”

 

To keep up with everything about hydration, everyday life, and Gatorade Ion’s newest partnership with Kathryn Bernardo, follow @gatoradeion on Facebook, IG, and Twitter. Stay hydrated with Gatorade Ion! Available in convenience stores and supermarkets nationwide. #GatoradeIon #EverydayHydratION

Technology for good - Fundraising goes social

MANILA, Philippines  — In the new normal, doing good is much more digital. 

In this time of COVID, 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. With the help of friends, families and kind strangers, they have raised over P3.2 million as of April 28, 2020. 

According to 26-year-old Jonas Tamayo, it was his friend Chabeli Cua who came up with the idea. Cua, along with Choi Co, takes care of sourcing supplies as well as hospital relations. 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. However, the strong response of people who took part in their campaign enabled them to do much more.

“Our donations are more than what we expected when we first started this fund drive. This enabled us to produce or procure thousands of face shields, hazmat suits and N95 masks. 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,” Tamayo said. 

The group used three social media main channels as platforms for their campaign – Facebook, Instagram and a live Google Doc that is made available for the public.

“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. 

“We did most of the legwork through different digital platforms, specifically on delivery and payment transfers.  Digital plays a big role on how we try to live in the ‘new normal’ and we have to learn how to use it responsibly to our advantage,” Tamayo added.

Over 60,000 meals for frontliners 

CloudEats founders Kimberly Yao and Iacopo Rovere have been helping out frontline workers by providing them with hot meals. To date, CloudEats has raised P3.8 million and has given over 60,000 hot meals through various partner hospitals and local government units (LGUs) in Metro Manila. 

CloudEats is the largest cloud kitchen company in the Philippines. A cloud kitchen serves as a restaurant kitchen that accepts incoming orders only through online ordering systems and offers no dine-in facility.

“Given that our business is under essential goods and that we could still operate, we wanted to make sure that we are able to help out to those who are in need,” Yao said. 

“We believe that in this time, our community needs to work together more than ever to survive the pandemic.  Food is a vital product that everyone needs. 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. These include the Philippine General Hospital, East Avenue Medical Center, the National Kidney Transplant Institute, Cardinal Santos Medical Center and the Philippine Heart Center. 

To raise awareness about their campaign, the two have relied on Spotify, Facebook and Instagram. With the help of families and friends, they gathered a lot of donations through Facebook and Instagram tags and shares. The group also constantly posts updates on their feed, stories and newsletters regarding the progress of the food drive.

“It helps that a lot of our family and friends share our materials on their personal pages, group chats and public groups,” Yao said. 

To utilize social media, the company put up a donation website for the food drive. For those who are interested to take part in this campaign, you may donate and learn more about the fund drive at www.cloudeats.ph. 

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. 

 

The group’s initial target was P150,000 but they managed to raise P162,158.40 of total donations. 

“We were able to 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.

“Our team created materials for everyday online posting. This mostly consists of daily updates across our social media platforms until we were able to reach our goal of P150,000. We even encouraged our other friends to repost and even tried to talk to some influencers so as to get the word out more,” she said.

"It is tough to navigate life and the new normal in the middle of a pandemic, but these generous and digitally adept millennials show us that we can still contribute and make things better for our communities. Their creative and responsible use of our network and digital services inspire us to work harder to make sure that more people will benefit from technology," said PLDT Public Affairs Head Ramon R. Isberto.

To know more about the efforts of the PLDT Group in beating the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit https://beta.pldt.com/covid19/

Gabay Guro launches ‘Learning Never Stops’ online training program for teachers nationwide

Gabay Guro, PLDT’s flagship educational program, provides free online trainings for teachers nationwide through its recently launched ‘Learning Never Stops’ campaign. As of May 30, 2020, Gabay Guro has led 13 e-learning sessions on Facebook with over 300,000 views to date. 

The online training videos uploaded on the Gabay Guro Facebook Page are all for free. These videos are available for replay which allows teachers to go learn at their own pace.

Topics of the live training and recorded webcasts include life learnings from the quarantine, virtual teaching 101, flipping the classroom, improving students' reading and comprehension, as well as teachers' mindset improvement in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through the comments sections and webinar discussions, many teachers have expressed their gratitude to Gabay Guro and the speakers for conducting these free webinars.

“Learning is constantly evolving. This is why our ‘Learning Never Stops’ campaign aims to empower our teachers amid the pandemic as we provide them with engaging online training videos conducted by reputable guest speakers. Through this campaign, we are equipping our teachers with digital competencies and capabilities that enable them to adapt in this new normal,” said PLDT SVP and Gabay Guro Chairwoman Chaye Cabal-Revilla.

“During these trying times, we want to assure our teachers that every opportunity will be given to them amid COVID-19. Our recently launched ‘Learning Never Stops’ campaign enables them to explore online trainings and curriculum that aim to expand their knowledge and expertise,” said PLDT and Smart VP for Learning and Development and Gabay Guro Head for Teachers Training Alexander Kibanoff.

Gabay Guro is spearheaded by the PLDT-Smart Foundation and PLDT Managers Club, Inc. The 12-year-old program empowers teachers across the country through initiatives in seven key pillars. This includes scholarships, teachers’ trainings, classroom donations, livelihood programs, connectivity & computerization, teachers’ tribute, and digital innovations.

To know more about the efforts of the PLDT Group in beating the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit http://beta.pldt.com/covid19/.

PLDT - Smart Foundation | Pampanga Relief goods

Underserved communities in far-flung areas in Pampanga received much-needed support from the PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF) which recently turned over grocery packs and PPE donations in Angeles City and San Fernando, Pampanga.

The corporate social responsibility arm of PLDT and Smart, PSF turned over 1000 grocery packs, 250 PPE sets and 10 tents. In Angeles City, 500 grocery packs and 250 PPE sets were turned over to their local government unit (LGU) through Vice Mayor Maria Vicenta L. Vega-Cabigting.

“We continue to try our best in addressing the needs of our brothers and sisters in some indigent communities across the country, especially during these trying times,” said PLDT-Smart Foundation President Esther Santos.

NLEX Road Warriors Coach Joseller “Yeng” Guiao and players Mike Miranda, William McAloney and Kris Porter also joined the turnovers in Angeles and in the Safe Haven Quarantine.

Meanwhile, in San Fernando, Pampanga, 500 grocery packs and 10 tents were turned over to the PNP Region 3 for distribution to poor families living in far-flung areas. These families include those who are living along the river, indigenous communities and poverty-stricken villages in the region.

Moreover, the Metro Pacific Investments Foundation (MPIF) distributed 200 PPE sets to the Task Force Safe Haven Quarantine Facility through Dr. Maria Clemencita D. Dobles, who is the Manager of the Health and Sanitation Division National Government Administrative Center in New Clark City, Brgy. Aranguren Capas, Tarlac.

The MPIF also distributed 300 grocery packs for some families in Apalit, Pampanga. This was turned over to Apalit Vice Mayor Pedro Nucom.

“We realize that helping provide aid distribution will enable the province to stretch its help for all its 505 Barangays,” says MPIF President Melody del Rosario. “It is a daunting task for all provinces and we in the private sector are always ready to extend our support.”

The Pampanga relief effort was conducted together with PLDT and Smart, Metro Pacific Investments Foundation, North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) Corporation and Alagang Kapatid Foundation.

To know more about the efforts of the PLDT Group in beating the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit https://beta.pldt.com/covid19/.