MANILA, Philippines — Project Ugnayan, the fund-raising initiative of the country’s top businesses, has reached over 7.6 million beneficiaries in vulnerable communities affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 outbreak.
The project is in cooperation with the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF).
Under the project, Caritas Manila distributed P1,000 supermarket gift certificates. It has so far reached 1.071 million families or 5.354 million people.
It is on target to deliver gift certificates to 1.37 million families or 6.83 million people by April 15, the original end-date of the enhanced community quarantine.
Another component of the project is ABS-CBN’s Pantawid ng Pagibig wherein food packs were given to 238,854 families or 1.194 million people. The food packs were delivered through local government units. They will reach a total of 631,921 families or 3.151 people by the end of their program.
ADB and the government’s Bayan, Bayanihan has delivered food packages to 13,370 families or 66,850 people through the Philippine Army and DSWD.
ADB has provided funding to reach 80,000 families or a total of 400,000 people.
Project Ugnayan head Fernando Zobel de Ayala said that by coming together in a Bayanihan spirit so quickly, businesses were able to create a program of this scale and importance.
“This unprecedented assembly of so many of the country’s corporations and business families coming to the assistance of the most vulnerable in our society illustrates and speaks of the heart and generosity of the business community. Our special thanks go to the 10 bishops of the dioceses in Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite, and Laguna, as well as to Caritas Manila under the leadership of Father Anton Pascual, and the network of parish priests, volunteers, and barangay captains who distributed the gift certificates door-to-door in the lowest-income communities of Greater Metro Manila,” Zobel said.
PDRF co-chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said PDRF is grateful for this opportunity to be part of this business community effort.
“This is a movement we should nurture as we prepare to let people return to work and to re-start our economy in the post-quarantine period,” Zobel said.
PDRF co-chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the unity in diversity demonstrated by Project Ugnayan reveals the private sector’s serious commitment to help the country recover from the lost economic momentum because of the pandemic.