The enhanced community quarantine due to COVID-19 has forced a great number of Filipinos to stay at home and out of work. This includes our street vendors, many of whom depend on selling their wares—be it food or other products—to earn a daily living. With no people out on the street to buy their products, they are left with little to no money to put food on the table.
A Facebook group was put up a week ago, called #PasokMgaSuki Initiative to help aid these street vendors. Now with over 5,700 members, the group aims to connect the vendors with people who want to donate and help them out. This is just one of the many citizen efforts to help uplift fellow Filipinos during this time of crisis.
The group puts a face and a name (literally) to these people we see every day, who sell everything from street food and fruits and vegetables, to fish and balut, peanuts, and even bags and blankets. A number of the group’s members are senior citizens—among those most vulnerable to the COVID-19 disease.
Each post also includes the story of each street vendor—what they sell, what they intend to use the money for (usually for food, milk for babies, maintenance medicine for the seniors). To ensure legitimacy of each poster, they are also require to post photos of their IDs, and Gcash number (or Gcash number of their children, should the children be posting on the vendor’s behalf).
While the group’s admins work on filtering the posts, they also call on donors to be discerning before they send out their donations.
Photo courtesy of Edwin Bacasmas/Inquirer.net
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