By Sofia Baldonado
With the goal of encouraging other organizations, the De La Salle University-Dasmariñas Junior Marketing Association (JMA) organized a donation drive titled “Kalinga: Handog kay Lolo at Lola” which is aimed at helping the Anawim Lay Missions Foundation, a small institution established to support poor and abandoned elderly people.
JMA President Reign Sebaga said that part of the organization’s objectives on the donation drive is to inspire other organizations to support elder care amidst the pandemic.
“One of the objectives of the event talaga is to inspire other organizations or groups to recognize elder care centers [for] their outreach activities,” Sebaga said.
The JMA President also expressed the worries that her team had when they organized the donation drive.
“Syempre nakakakaba naman talaga mag-collect ng money, pero despite of that, marami pa rin talagang may gustong magbigay ng kahit konting tulong for our lolos and lolas… We really thought hindi namin malalampasan ‘yung PHP 9,000 [target]… We’re very thankful.”
The JMA’s “Kalinga: Handog kay Lolo at Lola” successfully collected a total of PHP 24,110 donations, comprising of PHP 15,310 monetary donations and PHP 8,800 worth of medicines donated by the EMZ-T Pharmacy, all gathered from Nov. 22 to Dec. 15.
According to Sebaga, the donations had been successfully sent to the Anawim Lay Mission Foundation on Wednesday, December 15.
She further explained that their goal to shed light on elder care does not necessarily equate to merely aiming for monetary donations as charity work could be expressed in various ways.
“Kapag sinabing outreach, it’s not limited naman sa pag-donate ng money, you can educate someone, you can help someone nang hindi ka naglalabas ng money. So ‘yung mga gantong initiative[s] and advocac[ies], I hope maging call din for them (other organizations) to [be] inspired in solving these problems that we are currently facing,” the JMA President stressed.
Moreover, the Communication and Media Society’s (COMMSOC) Junior Officer for Publicity, Madriella Mendoza, shared her take on the JMA’s elder care initiative.
“I really commend JMA for setting up this donation drive and for having these goals to help the elderly, especially in this time. Since everyone really struggled to adjust [on] the online setup, a lot of us forgot how harder it was for the elderly to have their lives shift too.”
Mendoza continued, “As an officer [of an organization], I think this is something that is really inspiring as they (JMA) had the initiative to act on something that a lot of people may have forgotten or not thought about,”
To know more about Anawim Lay Mission Foundation, visit their official website through the link below:
