Culture of Hope and Conquest: Cherry Mobile Extends Help to 12, 500 Families Devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda

Nothing compares to the joy of witnessing survivors who got a spark of hope in their eyes especially those on the brink of giving up. This is what employee volunteers from Cherry Mobile experienced when they flew to different locations in the Visayas region to reach out to more than 12,000 families affected by the typhoon Yolanda. While the majority are focused on helping the victims in Tacloban, the relief operation team composed of employee volunteers from Cherry Mobile went to northern parts of Iloilo, Roxas City, Cadiz, Negros Occidental, Bantayan Island, Cebu, and Ormoc to give relief packs to communities that are not highlighted in the news but also suffered greatly from the typhoon.

A lot of preparations were made, and one sure thing out of the list is wasted time. As soon as the news was heard on air, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team of Cherry Mobile coordinated with the dealers and partner organizations in locations where the typhoon struck a lot of families. The relief team was divided into six groups to personally hand out help to the communities. These communities were totally devastated. People suffered from hunger and extreme heat at daytime due to absence of trees which were destroyed by the super typhoon. People chilled at night, suffering from torn houses, washed out farms and crop fields, fallen electricity posts, and lost loved ones.

The captivating island of Bantayan (Cebu) after the typhoon Yolanda struck the land

Areas in Bantayan, Cebu, and some municipalities in Iloilo suffer loss of electricity for weeks due to fallen electricity posts.

  

The typhoon withered crop fields and farms, leaving the communities profitless and foodless.

Employee volunteers, the staff of Cherry Mobile dealers, people from partner organizations, students from colleges and universities, and representatives from the local government units worked together in repacking the purchased goods, securing the logistics, and in distributing the goods personally. The whole process of planning and executing the relief operation was toilsome and it indeed took a great deal of time, strength, and resources from the volunteers. The cooperation of each involved party, however, made the burden less difficult to carry.

Employees from Aerophone in Cebu gladly helped repack the goods in their office after work hours.

Volunteers from Galleon Trading helped produce 2,086 relief packs for the affected municipalities in Cadiz, Negros Occidental.

Pharmacy students from the University of San Carlos stayed late at night to prepare the relief packs for residents of Bantayan Island.

Regional Emergency Assistance Communications Team (REACT) Philippines – Metro Cebu Group played a big part in distributing the goods in Bantayan Island.

The Negros team worked even up to midnight to ensure that relief goods would reach the right beneficiaries

 

In this photo taken by a student volunteer from Colegio de la Purisima Concepcion, the volunteers had to lift up the wires of a fallen electricity post to be able to get through to the relief distribution venue.

Students and faculty members from Colegio de la Purisima Concepcion volunteered their time and strength to help distribute goods to three barangays in Roxas.

Despite all the stress, hunger pangs, sleepless nights and sickness (before, during and after the relief operation) experienced by the volunteers, all hardships were gone when the volunteers saw the smiles of the beneficiaries. They were willing to wait in long lines at very early in the morning or in the heat of the midday sun just to receive one share of relief goods. They were so grateful for what simple help they got from Cherry Mobile. The regained hope evident in their eyes proved that the relief operation, hard as it was, is not in vain. It helped them rekindled their shattered hopes and started to mend their broken spirits.

Bantayan residents waited along the roads in hopes that a relief truck would pass by, and got an answered prayer.

Kids get their share of food packs when the relief team distributed goods in Bacolod.

It is amazing how calamity brings people together. The local communities gladly received people from other places who came to help, and the relief operation team gladly held out their hands to assist—not as an effort on their own, but as a collective action of different groups uniting for the purpose of uplifting those struck down by disaster.

There were lots of challenges; as they say, there is no such thing as a perfect disaster relief operation. One could only wish that natural disasters would never again occur in our country. But one certain thing is that no matter what challenge may come, the strongest people—the Filipinos—will live to overcome it. This is the kind of lifestyle Cherry Mobile seeks to uphold and value: a lifestyle of hope and conquest.

Written by Keren Grace Tandico

Cherry Mobile in Cebu and Bohol: Compassion in Action

When the whole nation extended their condolences and empathy to the Visayans affected by the earthquake on October 15, 2013, Barangay Cherry Mobile extended their presence and let their very hands reach out to the affected families.

Cebu and Bohol had not yet fully recovered from aftershocks on October 17 when the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team of Cherry Mobile flew to Cebu City to complete the last leg of their preparations for the Disaster Response activity benefiting affected communities in Cebu and Bohol.

In Cebu, Cherry Mobile worked hand in hand with the Provincial Social Welfare Office (PSWO) of Cebu and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Regional Office for Region 7. They rallied their volunteers to help repack the goods purchased at Cebu into individual Cherry Mobile bags. Some of their staff also helped distribute the goods to the communities. PSWO and DSWD also provided the vehicles to transport the goods in the community.

Volunteers shared their time to help prepare goods for earthquake victims.

College students spent their time packing goods into sacks to be delivered to affected communities.

The staff of the Provincial Social Welfare Office (PSWO) smile in hope despite pressing times.

Volunteers from different sectors helped DSWD and Cherry Mobile pack the relief goods to be shipped to Bohol.

Many of the supermarkets and stores in Cebu remained closed during the week when the earthquake occurred; also, many of the working population were agitated by the earthquake experience. Thus, processing the goods from supermarket to the repacking site to individual bags took time beyond work hours. The staff had to stay even until night time to monitor the delivery of goods. Transporting the goods also entailed hours of travel on rough roads in a formidable weather. Distributing them was not limited to daytime, but even at night just to make sure that the residents receive the goods as soon as it arrived in the location. But all the tiring work and long travel did not stop these volunteers to contribute their part in making sure that help goes straight to the communities.

At the DSWD Field Office-7, repacking continued day and night in order to complete enough supplies for shipping to Bohol beneficiaries.

During the disaster relief operation, Cherry Mobile bags contained ready to eat food and a bottle of water, since many of the water pipelines and wells were destroyed by the earthquake. DSWD Staff took charge of repacking until midnight to meet their target (10,000 sacks of goods per day to be delivered in Bohol)

Even at night time, staff from the PSWO office helped distribute the goods to families affected by the landslide in Boljoon.

Barangay Cherry Mobile was able to help about 3,000 families in Cebu and Bohol by means of relief packs. Around 1,250 bags of goods (rice and groceries) were given for distribution in Cebu while more than 1,650 goods were transported to municipalities and barangays in Bohol. Barangay Cherry Mobile distributed the goods to 500 families at the Mandaue city market, where the market collapsed, and one vendor died while others were injured and displaced from their stalls.

Recipients of food packs from the Mandaue market gladly receive five kilos of rice and a bag of ready-to-eat food.

Residents of Boljoon, Cebu, which is a three-hour travel away from Cebu City, also received goods from Barangay Cherry Mobile.  Boljoon residents suffered from a landslide as a result of the earthquake.

Boljoon residents gratefully received the goods from Cherry Mobile.

With the help of our PSWO and Boljoon Municipal Social Welfare & Development staff, Barangay Cherry Mobile was able to respond first to these communities—ahead of other aid-giving organizations. In Bohol, residents in Danao received food packs from Barangay Cherry Mobile. The CSR team together with some DSWD staff had to travel five hours to reach the municipality of Danao because the normal route which takes only an hour and a half has been largely affected by the earthquake. The remaining goods which are endorsed to PSWO for Cebu and DSWD Regional Office were to be distributed to the residents in severely affected communities.

Hundreds of  Danao residents immediately lined up to receive goods upon hearing that it has arrived at the municipal hall at around 9PM.

Many of the volunteers are also victims, like this municipal social worker who just came out of the hospital only to help give out relief goods until midnight.

It is easy to have compassion for those who lost their loved ones, their homes, their businesses, and a part of their cultural heritage. One can just wonder how one could sleep peacefully in a land that shakes violently every so often, let alone thinking about how to rebuild a shattered house, and lift up a downcast family. But being where they are and experiencing even just a bit of what they have experienced on that doomed day when the earthquake struck, and seeing personally the damages brought by nature gave a whole new perspective on their condition. And being able to personally hand out some goods and give a smile to the discouraged locals meant a whole lot of difference. This risk-taking effort is a symbol of Barangay Cherry Mobile’s commitment to help those who need help the most, even if at times it would require going out of the comfort zone, both literally and figuratively.

The CSR team together with the volunteers endured lengthy rough roads (five hours of travel to target area), tormented by painful sun rays at noontime and heavy rains in the night—wet and chilled, stuck in slippery roads and suffered from dry cough brought by dusty roads. To deliver the relief goods on time, they must keep going and ignore hunger and thirst, unexplainable body pains and sleepless nights due to a series of aftershocks with a magnitude of up to 5.2 and no electricity nor a comfort room for an aching stomach.

All those challenges were surpassed with an end in mind that the CSR team could help rekindle the shattered hopes and dreams of thousands of families who were victims of tragedy. The bottom line of our initiative is to express our company’s great concern to those who were afflicted by the disaster so that they will feel that indeed, Cherry Mobile CARES…

Barangay Cherry Mobile Goes Into Relief Action

When heavy rains strike, help always pours out to communities affected by the floods, but seldom reported are those who are not sinking in flood waters yet are stranded in their own houses with no food or water.

Being trapped in the mountains without food could be inconceivable for many of us, but the 7,000 families in the mountain part of San Rafael, Rodriguez, Rizal, experienced this condition when the southwest monsoon and typhoon Maring struck the area. When the Wawa River overflowed, they were trapped in their own homes, and the floodwaters in the nearest municipality hindered them from getting into town to get food supply. Landslides also washed away houses along the mountain slopes. 

Around 7,000 families reside in the mountain area beginning from this side of the river and far beyond.

This unfortunate situation is an opportunity to help, which Barangay Cherry Mobile grabbed as soon as news of their condition reached the management. Cherry Mobile employees purchased relief goods and started packing in no time, with representatives from different departments working together to repack sacks of rice and canned goods into Cherry Mobile bayong bags. With the help of Lieutenant Primo Partosa of the Rizal district and the Philippine Marines Fifth Infantry Brigade, the community basketball court was turned into a distribution center. Officers of the Philippine National Police also came to enforce security in the venue. 

Barangay Captain Edgardo Sison hold relief packs for distribution with the Cherry Mobile CSR team and Lt. Primo Partosa.

Residents came from up the Sierra Madre mountains and had to walk two hours to reach the covered court for the relief goods distribution. Adults and children alike composed the 1,000 families who gathered and waited patiently for the aid. After a round of messages of encouragement from Cherry Mobile, the AFP, and local barangay officials, the long lines moved as one by one the beneficiaries received their relief packs. After the distribution, the mountain residents, tired but contented to be secure with food for the next few days, left for their two-hour journey back home.

Barangay Cherry Mobile also travelled to Noveleta, Cavite, to help 1,000 families in one barangay affected by the flood. This relief operation materialized with the help of barangay councillor Kate Bernal. Beneficiaries from within the community gathered one Saturday morning to welcome a truck of relief goods sent by Cherry Mobile to their aid.

It is the main goal of Barangay Cherry Mobile to respond to the needs of the communities by delivering help not just for the sake of doing so, but to really make sure that the support reaches those who need it. For this reason, volunteers from Cherry Mobile take time to travel to far locations where majority of the outpouring donations do not reach. By doing so, these volunteers do not just make sure the supplies reach the target beneficiaries but also show compassion personally by means of gestures of kindness.

Written by Keren Grace Tandico