TGP advocates disaster preparedness
With the onset of the monsoon season, the country's largest drugstore chain, The Generics Pharmacy (TGP), is emphasizing its advocacy for disaster preparedness by encouraging Filipino families to have their own emergency survival kits at home.
According to TGP Chairman Benjamin I. Liuson, families should be more self-reliant especially in times of calamities for their safety.
"While Filipinos are known to be survivors, it pays to be ready. It is important that when a calamity strikes, we can manage the danger and inconvenience. A handy emergency survival kit, for instance, may be the determining factor between life and death," he said.
The importance of a survival kit is highly stressed by the common scenarios before and during calamities.
Before a calamity, panic buying is a usual sight because the public feels the strong need to stack up on the essentials. During calamities, evacuation centers become crowded, which causes diseases to spread rapidly. Evacuees suffer from fever, cough, colds, and loose bowel movement. Long lines of people waiting for relief goods are also a common sight.
TGP believes that although emergency survival kits are highly commercialized these days, you can build your own without stretching your finances.
The key to putting together a do-it-yourself (DIY) kit is to know which items you will need to survive. These are items which compensate for the limitations of the human senses such as flashlight, whistle, and bottled water.
You will also need a first aid kit in your emergency survival pack. TGP offers affordable generic medicines which will allow you to make a DIY first aid kit for as low as P 200. For that amount of money, you will be able to put together essentials for cleaning and curing wounds such as alcohol, antiseptic, hydrogen peroxide, cotton, band-aid, gauze pad, and medical tape; over-the-counter medicines like TGP Paracetamol for fever and headache, mefenamic acid for mild to moderate pain, carbocisteine for phlegm, loperamide for diarrhea, and cetirizine for allergic symptoms like sneezing, itchy nose, and watery eyes; and water purification tablet, Aquatab.
If you have maintenance medicines, do not forget to keep a spare in your DIY kit. TGP offers maintenance medicines for the heart, diabetes and cholesterol, which are on the average 80% more affordable than branded medicines.
Other necessary items that you should include in your survival pack are ready-to-eat food, portable radio, batteries, clothes, blankets, sanitary supplies, cash, and identification card with blood type and emergency contact details.
This typhoon season, be resourceful in putting together a reliable emergency survival kit. Plan ahead for your safety! With over 1,700 branches nationwide, TGP allows Filipinos to make a reasonable yet reliable DIY emergency kit.