Kaibigan ng PCSO draws 1,200 volunteers in Iloilo City
The ‘charity virus’ has stricken Iloilo province.
An estimated 1,200 residents of Iloilo and nearby municipalities yesterday joined the growing number of Filipino volunteers who have pledged to donate their time and services to charity work through the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
The new volunteers pledged their commitment to charity work in a simple ceremony at the Sarabia Manor Hotel, where the Kaibigan ng PCSO was launched as part of the agency’s Charity Caravan 2009 activities in Iloilo City.
“So far, this is the biggest number of volunteers we have processed since we launched the Kaibigan ng PCSO program last February,” said Imelda Limun, lead convenor of the new program.
Kaibigan ng PCSO intends to recruit and mobilize thousands of volunteers for the various activities of the charity agency, particularly its historic National Medical Mission this September.
The National Medical Mission aims to provide simultaneous medical and dental mission in the country’s 42,000 barangays on September 6 as part of the PCSO’s 75th Anniversary Celebration.
Aside from doing volunteer work in medical missions, members of Kaibigan ng PCSO will be given trainings in First Aid, Basic Life Support, Child and Maternal Care and Disaster Management.
All card-carrying volunteers of the Kaibigan ng PCSO are given the opportunity to be awarded with the PCSO Health Card, which puts them on the priority list of those seeking financial and medical assistance from the charity agency.
The launching of the Kaibigan ng PCSO in Iloilo City marked the arrival of the PCSO’s Charity Caravan in Panay.
The Charity Caravan seeks to “spread the charity virus” from Batanes to Zamboanga through motorcade, mini-concerts and medical and dental missions in 20 selected cities and municipalities.
Before coming to Iloilo City, the Charity Caravan 2009 had provided free medical services as well as entertainment to the people of Batanes, Nueva Vizcaya, Davao City, Cebu City, Palawan and Bacolod City in Negros Occidental.
The Caravan will also visit the provinces of Ilocos Sur, Isabela, Bohol, Quezon, Batangas, Cagayan de Oro, Tarlac, La Union, Zamboanga del Sur, Camarines Norte, Nueva Ecija, Antique, Leyte and Samar.
For the Panay leg, more than 30 doctors and other health professionals are mobilized to provide free medical and dental treatment to poor residents in Iloilo City.
During the medical mission, the PCSO will also provide booths for the Individual Medical Assistance Program (IMAP) to entertain requests for financial assistance from Iloilo residents who cannot afford to send their sick relatives to the hospital.