Volunteering for #RiseForMarawi at Resorts World Manila

A call to action was announced -

#WeRiseForMarawi Meal Packing Event would need 200 to 300 volunteers to package 18,000 meal bags equivalent to 500 boxes in 6 hours, from 7am to 1pm. To benefit the 300 displaced families of Marawi siege.

In a heartbeat, people responded!

Rappler made this deplorable news dated July 1 that local terrorists occupying Marawi City in Lanao del Sur have forced nearly 400,000 people in the wider area to flee their homes.

Hunger-stricken Marawis' number rises every day as the fight against the Maute continues to this day. While we, in Manila, continue on our normal day, indulging in fast-food promos, buffets and what not, many children. man, woman, elders, hungry and worst are sick. Though it is in our heart of hearts to help, it is hard, as supplies could not be sent out there easily.  A lot of factors may affect our efforts to help.  But, there are organizations that thankfully have managed to get access and distribute food in the most organized manner.

Thanks to Rise Against Hunger's initiative.  They gather funds to be able to provide Rice-soy-vegetable meal packs, however, with that big number of hungry stomachs, they need help in packing them and shipping them to the displaced areas.

Hence, the call for volunteers to sort out, pack and ready bags of easy cook meals.

Last August 12, 2017, volunteers from the following gathered and lent their 2 hours or so to pack the said meals.

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise

Resorts World Manila

LBC EXPRESS INC.

NorthernTrust

Globe Telecom

Optum Global Solutions, Inc.

Standard & Poor's (S&PGlobal)

Solanaland

Hands On Manila Sherpas

Philippine Coalition on Volunteerism

iVolunteer Philippines

Individual Volunteers

 It was so timely that me and my family were staying at Maxims Hotel at that time and Mae Bernardo of Resorts World Manila informed me about the event, though I wasn't able to register online as it was first and foremost an event organized and sponsored by HPE and RWM, I was able to register on that day for the last schedule of packing.

Mae Bernardo (of the #MaarteSeries) happily posted as she volunteered.

Joy Andrade, also of RWM together with a colleague, manned the scooper section for the soy.

More RWM peeps and other volunteers.

And yours truly.  I manned the first stage where I put two sachet components of the packed meal, and the sticker label.

My daughter Danica was with me as my assistant, who willingly came with me to help pack as well, together with many other kids.

fellow blogger, Mars Callo

The goal that was set was to finish at least 500 boxes of these packed nutrient dense food.  By 1PM, with lesser number of volunteers for the last shift, 510 boxes were packed and sealed, ready to be shipped to Marawi.

It was an uplifting event for all of us that joined this event.  Signing and doing something to fill up the gap is nothing a penny could worth, you can, of course, donate cash or stuff our brothers in Marawi need but there are times that your effort pays more.  Without strong arms to carry sacks of rice and soy and ingredients, without little hands to sort and label each pack, or hands to scoop up every ingredient, seal and pack into boxes, it would be really hard to properly distribute the essential food our hunger-stricken brethren need.

Kudos to the people who made this event possible, may God bless you even more.