The impact of the enhanced community quarantine in the provinces made it harder for the volunteer staff of Iloilo Caucus of Development Non-Government Organizations, Inc. (ICODE) to provide everyday necessities for their families.  

These 10 field volunteers were part of a disaster response project we conducted last January to March 2020 for TS Ursula-affected people’s organizations and social enterprises in Northern Iloilo. The volunteers were located in the different coastal municipalities of Carles, Concepcion, Estancia, Batad, and Higantes Island. 

In that project, the volunteers were responsible for identifying beneficiaries, monitoring the utilization of cash assistance for shelter repair, and rehabilitation of livelihood programs like seaweeds farming, fish drying facilities, and fish aggregating devices. 

The ECQ beginning March 15 disrupted their monitoring work and affected project activities like documentation and feed backing.   

Their project contracts have already expired, but we decided to subsidize Php10,000 allowance for the field volunteers to help them bear family expenses like medicines, baby milk, transportation, communications, and food. 

Admittedly, the support we gave was inadequate, but looking at the bright side, the small cash amount extended additional help to them.

By: Emmanuel Areno, Iloilo Caucus of Development NGOs, Inc. (ICODE) and Raul M. Hular