i-ii Foreword 01 PNVSCA: Mission and Vision 03 Staysafe.ph Contact Tracing App: Private Sector's Response to Address the TABLE Pandemic 05 Atikha Rekindles "Bayanihan Spirit" for OFWs OF 08 De La Salle College of St. Benilde - School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies CONTENTS 11 Ugnayan ng Pahinungod 14 Municipality of La Trinidad, Benguet 17 Zamboanga City 20 Batangas Province 22 Tangub City 25 Tarlac Province 27 Cebu City: Engaging with Experts as Volunteers 30 Baguio City COPYRIGHT 2021 33 Synergy in Times of the Pandemic: © Philippine National Volunteer Service The Midsayap Experience Coordinating Agency 36 Cabuyao City National Economic and Development Authority 38 Cagayan De Oro City Published in the Philippines 42 Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan By: Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency 45 Volunteerism: A Dimension of Whole Person Education at Silliman University ALL RIGHTS RESERVED New Era University Cares for the This publication or any portion thereof may 48 not be reproduced in any form or by any Community manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief 49 Acknowledgements passages in books, articles, reviews, legal papers, and judicial or other judicial proceedings with proper citation. The views, opinions, positions, or strategies expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions or strategies of the PNVSCA or any of its employees thereof. ISBN 978-971-95383-6-3 FOREWORD The indomitable Filipino spirit or what we To help fill-in the gap of volunteer needs, simply call ‗bayanihan’ is expected to rise the Philippine National Volunteer Service up during the most challenging of times. Coordinating Agency (PNVSCA) During natural and man-made disasters, conceptualized the ―Be a Volunteer,‖ an we have seen these many times. online platform that calls for volunteers and matches volunteering offers with The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has requests, to help address the manpower brought unprecedented challenges even requirements of organizations who are at for seasoned volunteers and volunteer the frontline in implementing COVID-19 managers. The fear of getting infected, response measures. It also organized mobility restrictions, and information gaps webinars to feature the good practices of among others, were the top concerns local government units and higher faced by the voluntary sector, especially education institutions in engaging during the early onslaught of COVID-19. volunteers. i This publication of the PNVSCA, together Although many individuals were interested with its partners, aims to highlight the to volunteer, mobilizing them remained a potential of volunteerism as a crisis challenge due to fear and lack of management and as a development information on where and how they can be strategy in the nation‘s recovery plans as engaged. Thus, the need to mainstream gleaned from the presentations by various volunteerism in the various sectors organizations that shared during the through the development plans at all levels webinars. is proposed as a core strategy. Central to the implementation of the strategy is the The lessons learned presented during the designation of volunteer focal persons at webinar point to the need to include the Local Government Units, National volunteerism as part of the preparedness Government Agencies, State Universities mechanism of an organization. Most of the and Colleges, Government Owned and LGUs and HEIs shared that since Controlled Corporations and other everyone is affected, the call for volunteers government institutions, who will posed extra challenge to the volunteer orchestrate volunteer efforts and ensure a community as they too were unprepared holistic approach in volunteer for this ―new normal.‖ To start with, the engagement. LGUs and HEIs usually do not have a registry of volunteers by sector. This is In these trying times, bayanihan spirit is compounded with the mindset that exemplified by higher education volunteerism is only applicable to specific institutions, private organizations and type of work, fields, or sectors, many individuals, and the LGUs who have come individuals who were willing to volunteer out of their comfort zones so that they can were untapped. give a hand to the frontliners against the disease as COVID-19 continues to spread With the pandemic, the power of across the world. technology and how it changed the volunteering landscape was recognized. We hope that the experiences and lessons Those who have the capacity volunteered learned presented in this magazine would online by providing psychosocial services, inspire more individuals and organizations business mentoring, and virtual inclusive to volunteer and contribute in achieving a education. more healthy and resilient society. DONALD JAMES D. GAWE Executive Director PNVSCA ii Mission Promote and harness voluntary services and resources through relevant and responsive plans, policies, advocacy, technical assistance and coordination services. Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency Vision A leading institution coordinating and advocating volunteerism towards a self-reliant, empowered and progressive society. 1 At the start of the implementation of the nationwide lockdown on 17 March 2020, PNVSCA conceptualized the „Be a Volunteer,‟ to help in the call for volunteers. The platform is being implemented together with the NEDA Regional Offices who assist in the matching of volunteers with the requests. PNVSCA likewise called on its partner organizations to assist in its various efforts to promote volunteerism during the pandemic. The succeeding pages are stories of the first organizations to sign-up with the 'Be a Volunteer' - Multisys and Atikha, and partners in promoting volunteerism among the higher education institutions - De La Salle College of St. Benilde - School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies (SDEAS) and UP Ugnayan ng Pahinungod. - ED 2 StaySafe.ph Contact Tracing App: Private Sector's Response to Address the Pandemic By: Athens Ordoña The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to Its pandemic mitigation platform a serious worldwide health crisis, never StaySafe.ph was finally up and running on before seen by the present generation. April 1, 2020, initially for company and Because of the lockdowns and pandemic restrictions, there is almost a standstill in partners' use only. Several local crucial economic activities, which are much government units (LGUs) also tapped -needed lifeline to the country MultiSys to implement their own localized especially today. For one, thousands of contact tracing, heat mapping, and establishments had already closed down. citizens‘ health condition reporting system. Due to these inevitable business closures, With the success of such implementations, a huge chunk of our workforce has temporarily or permanently lost their jobs, numerous organizations encouraged the including hundreds of thousands of company to present StaySafe.ph to the overseas Filipino workers, some of whom national government. It then introduced the have already been retrenched in their host platform to multiple government agencies, countries. and formally joined the Philippine National On top of the significant economic Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency turmoil in what was once considered as the (PNVSCA) as a volunteer to amplify its most vibrant market in the region, the cause further. pandemic has cost the lives of many of the nation‘s frontliners and fellow compatriots. After a number of technical presentations To date, there are already over 8,000 lives taken, closing in to 9,000 day by day. to representatives of the National Task Truly, to say that it is a ―difficult time‖ is an Force for COVID -19, Inter-Agency Task understatement. The threat is real and the Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, solution requires that we act as one Department of the Interior and Local towards a common goal, which is to defeat Government, and Department of the virus. Information and Communications It is in this light that Multisys Technologies Technology, StaySafe.ph was accepted on Corporation assembled a team of full stack April 22, and the IATF released its developers dedicated to join the rest of the Resolution No. 27, which states that the world in a united stand against the task force accepted StaySafe.ph as the pandemic. Luckily, the team already had country‘s official contact tracing, health an existing end-to-end healthcare system with health condition monitoring modules, condition reporting, and social distancing the HealthBox platform, which it only system. modified to help mitigate the pandemic. Photo by Business Mirror. During the StaySafe.ph National Launch in August. (L-R) National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 Deputy Chief Implementer and testing czar Sec. Vince Dizon, Baguio City Mayor and contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong, MultiSys (StaySafe.ph developer) CEO David Almirol, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, Department of Health Undersecretary Roger Tong-An, SM Supermalls President Steven Tan, McDonald’s Philippines President and CEO Kenneth Yang, and Director 3 General of Anti-Red Tape Authority Atty. Jeremiah Belgica. MultiSys StaySafe.ph: A pandemic mitigation system and a „digital bayanihan‟ platform StaySafe.ph is a web and mobile application By registering, the effort being asked from (iOS, Android and Huawei) that enables each of us is so little, yet the collected health contact tracing by alerting