Taking it upon themselves to help ensure clean, orderly and peaceful elections, volunteers of Timawa Adventure Leadership, Inc. organized a voters’ assistance tent at Barangay Luz, Cebu City last Election Day, May 10.
Dubbed the “TIMAWA TENT,” this activity enabled voters at that particular Barangay to know their respective precinct numbers and room assignments via a records database procured from the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Cebu City Office.
Apart from the voters’ assistance initiative, the organization also provided a volunteer paramedical team, which was responsible for making medical assistance available to voters who braced the heat of the sun and the long queues in order to exercise their right to suffrage.
Van Ayson, the activity project coordinator, said “TIMAWA TENT was conceptualized with one single goal in mind — to serve the voters. Hence, the group thought of making it less of a struggle for voters to find their respective precincts, which would normally take several minutes using a manual list of registered voters from COMELEC.” The activity served more than a thousand clients. Overall, he viewed the activity as an overwhelming success, owing to the amount of resources and the number of volunteers the organization was able to pull in.
The activity, supported by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI), had a total pool of 35 youth volunteers. These volunteers were graduates and alumni of the different programs of RAFI, namely the Young Minds Academy (YMA), Young Minds on Xplore (YMX) and the Kool Adventure Camp (KAC), all integrated into one youth group — the Aboitiz Leaders of Excellence (ALEx). The activity was in cooperation with the Parish Pastoral Council on Responsible Voting (PPC-RV) and C-Cimpel of St. Joseph’s Parish as local parish partner.
Nature’s Spring Water and Julie’s Bakeshop also sponsored the initiative, with further contributions from the Barangay Luz Council and the Cebu City Chapter of the Red Cross.
Timawa Adventure Leadership Inc. is a nonprofit, nonpartisan volunteer organization that is engaged in youth empowerment and community development by providing programs and activities initiated by the youth to effect change within themselves and the community. ?