Ateneans heed call for relief packing ops volunteers

Dozens of Ateneo students, faculty, staff and alumni heeded the call to volunteer for the relief packing efforts at the College Covered Courts, in the Loyola Heights campus.

Since Friday, 27 November 2020, volunteers working in 4-hour shifts have packed hundreds of relief goods destined for survivors of the recent calamities across Luzon.

The operation at the Loyola Heights campus is being led by the Ateneo DReaM Team, Tanging Yaman Foundation, and Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, who have been working continuously for the past few weeks since the first of several typhoons struck the country.

The call for volunteers was first put out by Lino Rivera, Vice President for Social Development, in a memo to the community last 26 November 2020. The team was given permission by the Quezon City local government to go ahead with the relief packing operations, operating under strict guidelines given the still-ongoing pandemic.

Among the rules in place during the relief packing ops are physical distancing, pre-registration, and filling out of health survey forms prior to entry into campus.

The volunteer slots were also limited to 25 per shift, with each shift running from 8am-12nn and then at 1-5pm.

"The volunteer work that our students, faculty, staff, and alumni are doing to repack relief goods in the covered courts as well as the donations are concrete and generous expressions of spirit of solidarity for our brothers and sisters who have been devastated by the series of typhoons that hit us," Rivera said. "To them we give our heartfelt thanks!"

Relief packing operations at the LS Covered Courts will run until 12 December 2020.