The enhanced community quarantine has forced most of us in the National Capital Region to stay at home, as we should. It is but a minor sacrifice compared to the number of lives we can save.
While it really is a preventative measure, the quarantine has also unknowingly created an opportunity for families to be together, with an earlier school break for the kids and a respite from the office for their overworked parents.
However, for the majority of Pinoys who have to earn their keep day by day, this break from work is not good news at all. The samalamig vendor, the guy selling lumpiang gulay outside the office, the manang who prepares packed lunch for workers every day — they suddenly find themselves without customers. And with families to feed, they cannot afford not to earn money for a month.
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Thanks to the initiative of actress Bela Padilla, there may be light at the end of the tunnel for them.
The 28-year-old announced on Sunday that she is setting up a fundraising campaign on GoGetFunding, a global crowdfunding website, for the benefit of the street vendors in Metro Manila.
"During this inevitable pandemic, there will be a lot of Filipinos who won't be able to rely on their normal sources of income," the text on her GoGetFunding page reads.
"Our favorite taho, dirty ice cream and bananacue vendors won't be able to secure enough money to guarantee food for their families at the end of the day for one month until our community quarantine is over."
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The best solution I came up with is for us to donate. I set up an account, and whatever money we do raise, let’s spilt 16 ways for the 16 cities of metro Manila affected by this community quarantine. I will personally see to it that the money we raise will go to the right people.
— Bela Padilla (@padillabela) March 15, 2020
Thanks to generous netizens, as of today, just two days after Bela shared the project on social media, the targeted P1 million-peso fund has been achieved, with 14 more days to go on the fundraiser. The total as of 6:40 PM is 1,015,792.
"Let's look out for them please and donate what we can and let's split the money we raise 16 ways for the 16 cities of Metro Manila affected by this temporary lockdown."
Click here if you wish to donate to help the street vendors during the enhanced community quarantine.
Bela announced on March 17 that she will close the GoGetFunding page at 12 midnight.
I will close the gogetfunding page at midnight later so I can compute exactly how much food we can donate! Again thank you! And we still have 4&1/2 hours to keep on donating ??????????????????
— Bela Padilla (@padillabela) March 17, 2020
UPDATE as of 11:00 AM, March 18: Donations are still pouring in and someone just gave Php 2 million to the fund.
I was just woken up by a call. Somebody donated 2 million pesos. We are now at 3.3M pesos. ??????????????????????????????
— Bela Padilla (@padillabela) March 18, 2020
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