(Part 1)
Here are some of the beautiful, kind, generous things your schools and schoolmates have been doing since the pandemic started.
The University of Santo Tomas (UST) welcomed nurses and nurse aids to its Domus Mariae hotel and dormitory. Free food and transportation were also provided the health workers.
Health workers from The Medical City have found accommodations at La Salle Greenhills (LSGH), thanks to its Project Safe Shelter, which provides shelter for front-liners during the pandemic. LSGH transformed its classrooms into sleeping areas with access to clean bathrooms and internet connection to make sure 100 health workers can stay in touch with their families.
De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde’s (CSB) Project Safe Shelter welcomed 60 medical professionals from the Philippine General Hospital. They sleep in classrooms which have been converted into sleeping quarters and are provided breakfast, snacks, psychological support and spiritual support.
Health workers of San Lazaro Hospital have found a home at Nazarene Catholic School.
Test kits
Dr. Raul Destura, head of the University of the Philippines’ National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH), and his team developed a new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test kit that’s faster and more affordable. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the kit for public use.
Scientists at UP-NIH are developing ventilators to meet the increasing demand during this pandemic.
De La Salle University (DLSU) and CSB opened their doors to the homeless, giving shelter to around 150 people at the DLSU Enrique M. Razon Sports Center and Benilde Sandejas Gym during the enhanced community quarantine.
Malate Catholic High School, Espiritu Santo Parochial Schools, Holy Trinity Academy and Paco Catholic School also house street dwellers.
Ateneo de Manila University shortened its second semester, with students receiving passing marks. Students will also receive P20,000 refund of their tuition and a 60-percent refund of their lab fees. The school memo stated, “Giving a P mark is the most humane way of dealing with student grades under the circumstances that we are in.”
“Sana all”—how other students from different campuses reacted on Twitter.
Free psychotherapy
UP Diliman Psychological Services offers free telepsychotherapy services for health workers, providing mental health support to front-liners. They may contact 0906-3743466 via text or Viber to get in touch with licensed psychologists or clinician practitioners.
DLSU lit up its campus facade in red, its way of showing solidarity with the front-liners battling the coronavirus.
A team of industrial designers, chemists and engineers from UP Diliman College of Fine Arts, College of Science and College of Engineering have formed SaniTents PH and have created a design for sanitation tents that they will give to local government units for free. Hospitals have started using the design, and the group is coordinating with the Department of Health about using the tents in nonhospital settings.
Fashion experts, textile specialists, educators and alumni from CSB’s Fashion Design and Merchandising Program have been producing personal protective equipment (PPE) for front-liners. Members of Mark of Designers Alliance, the school’s official fashion organization, have also produced face shields which were donated to different hospitals.
Tribu Verde of LSGH launched a fundraiser for front-liners. Their target? P500,000.
Ateneo DReaM (Disaster Response and Management) Team has been raising funds to help communities with food rationing, the production and distribution of PPE and creating spaces for health workers, persons under monitoring and persons under investigation. According to a memo released by the school, 73 percent of the school’s student organizations have donated while others have also pledged.
Ateneo has also been raising funds through giving.ateneo.edu. Funds will be used to help front-liners and provide food, shelter and hygiene essentials for communities in need.
The Laguna campus of DLSU has developed a crowdsourcing tool to map COVID-19 symptoms: symptom-tracker.tedhouse.org. The site is available in English, Filipino, Cebuano/Bisaya, Hiligaynon, Ilocano, Bikol, Waray and Chavacano, and they are looking for volunteers who can translate the page into more Filipino languages.
The Alumni Association of Xavier School and the San Juan city government are converting San Juan City High School into a quarantine facility for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients who can no longer find space in hospitals. The school will have 100 beds for them.
3D printing
While on lockdown, 16-year-old Marcus Chu, a Grade 10 student, started printing plastic face shield bands using his 3D printer which was his parents’ Christmas gift to him. His family donated the face shields to four hospitals in Manila.
Industrial design students from CSB and UST collaborated to produce face shields for distribution as well. UP Diliman’s College of Engineering has formed a COVID-19 response team and requested all its departments to lend their 3D printers to be used for producing face shield frames for front-liners.
Noelle Placer, 17, an Ateneo de Manila University High School student, raised funds for public utility vehicle and tricycle drivers who lost their means of making a living during the lockdown. She and her family have handed out relief packs for tricycle drivers in Pasig and Taytay.
Current and former student athletes have donated their jerseys to groups like Every Little Thing Counts (which is run by former Ateneo volleyball star Jia Morado and Miguel de Guzman) and #MayTwentyAko for online auctions to raise funds for front-liners and communities in need.
The long list includes DLSU’s Ara Galang, Aby Maraño, Ernestine Tiamzon and Kim Fajardo; UP’s Nicole Tiamzon Mariane Buitre and Kathy Bersola; Far Eastern University’s Celine Domingo and Heather Guinoo; the University of the East’s Lai Bendong and Ralph Imperial; UST’s Tim Tajanlangit, CJ Cansino, Brent Paraiso and Renzo Subido; and Ateneo’s Kara Acevedo, Charo Soriano and SJ Belangel.
(More next week)