COVID-19 crisis spurs volunteerism

By Emme Rose Santiagudo and Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

Apart from fighting the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), young people in Iloilo resisted boredom by making face shields for frontline medical personnel that are trying to prevent the spread of the virus.

A total of 150 improvised face shields for medical frontliners in Iloilo were produced by students from the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) who are stuck in their dormitories in Miagao town due to travel restrictions amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Motivated by the lack of supply of alcohols and personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical professionals, the students volunteered to help produce improvised face shields, according to UPV-University Student Council (UPV-USC) chairman Adrian Camposagrado.

“They were supposed to go home to their provinces in Luzon and Mindanao but they were forced to stay because of the cancellation of flights. Some of them did not make it to their homes because of the closure of borders due to COVID-19,” Camposagrado told Daily Guardian.

Camposagrado said the Philippine College of Physicians-Visayas Chapter initiated the project by reaching out to the USC and providing the students with the necessary materials.

In just two days, 30 students were able to produce 150 improvised face shields for medical frontliners.

The improvised face shields have been delivered to the Iloilo Mission Hospital on Wednesday, Camposagrado added.

“We also plan to distribute the face shields to district hospitals in the city and province of Iloilo,” he said.

Meanwhile, Camposagrado urged fellow students to make use of their available time amid class suspensions to help contribute in fighting against COVID-19.

“We are encouraging our fellow youth and students to make use of their time to think of ways on how they can help our authorities fight this pandemic. We should also remain calm but vigilant despite this situation,” he said.

Currently, the students are calling for supplies and monetary donations to help them purchase materials for needed in making the protective equipment.

Interested groups or individuals may contact the Facebook account of Adrian Camposagrado for donations.

INTERNS ON THE MOVE

In Iloilo City, Post-Graduate Interns (PGI) of the West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSU-MC) in Jaro district, who were pulled out of their duties amid the COVID-19 crisis also found a way to help.

One of the PGIs, Gilbert Murillo said WVSU-MC residents asked them to make Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

“We initiated to procure the materials for the simple face shields, and a random screenshot of the design was just forwarded to us by a resident, which we adopted for simpler production using simpler materials, and we followed World Health Organization guidelines as to how PPEs are supposed to look like, and face shields must be made out of clear, impenetrable plastic that should cover the whole of the face and part of the neck, and we just followed it into our design,” Murillo said.

Murillo’s group already made and distributed 1,100 face shields to hospitals in Iloilo and Capiz.

The additional units were made possible because of donations via Facebook and Twitter promotions.

“We’ve already partnered with fellow PGIs and other partners, encouraging them to make their own, especially our fellow WVSU-MC PGIs who went back to their home provinces, and to other public hospitals as well,” he said.

 

‘TENT-SEATER’

Manfred Evanz Palcat, a law student at the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City, was encouraged by his friend Murillo to also make improvised face shields for his home province of Antique.

“This was motivated by pro-government and anti-government clashes on social media over concerns, which I also called out, but I was called a ‘tent-seater’ and I stopped posting. Good thing [Murillo], who was a PGI at [WVSU-MC], presented the idea to me with instructions and materials, and encouraged me to make them as well for the hospitals here in Antique because we also lacked,” Palcat said.

Palcat, with some workers from their family business, were able to make 37 improvised face shields and distributed them to frontline workers at Antique Provincial Hospital and Ramon Maza Sr. Memorial District Hospital in Sibalom town.

He also asked help from schoolmates at San Agustin and former co-workers in the next batch of shields for the Antique Integrated Health Office, other hospitals in the province, and police personnel at checkpoints.