PLDT, partners support Payatas livelihood program

CLARK FREEPORT--PLDT Inc., has partnered with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) to support sewers from a community in Quezon City and provide teachers and partner communities with hygiene kits.

The pouches used for the hygiene kits, as well as the face masks included in the kit, are produced by the Solidarity with Orphans and Widows (SOW), a livelihood group in Payatas, Quezon City.

The hygiene kit contains a bar of germicidal soap, a 250 ml bottle of alcohol, and two pieces of washable and reusable face masks. Over 600 hygiene kits have been distributed, so far, to PLDTadopted public schools and some communities in need.

Initial distribution started in Pula Elementary School in Cabanatuan City; Jose Escaler Memorial School in Apalit, Pampanga; Catmon Integrated School in Malabon City; and Pili West School in Camarines Sur, to coincide with the celebration of the National Teachers' Month.

“We are happy to support the endeavors of SOW members who are sewing washable face masks and pouches as we help meet the basic hygiene requirements of teachers and our partner

communities," PLDT Community Relations Head Katherine Diaz De Rivera said. PLDT will also assist in improving the skills of SOW members by conducting training sessions and providing them with sewing supplies.

"The production of face masks and pouches will generate additional income to their families, a much-needed relief in these pandemic times,” Diaz De Rivera said.

"PBSP has been mobilizing its members and partners to respond to COVID-19, and we are grateful to PLDT for its response with this project. Aside from capacitating SOW Payatas, the provision of masks to our public school teachers and partner communities will help lessen the transmission of the virus, especially to our teachers who are working tirelessly to ensure learning continuity at this time of the pandemic," PBSP Deputy Executive Director Elvin Ivan Uy said.

A joint project of Ina ng Lupang Pangako Parish, Vincentian Priests, De Paul House, pastoral workers, and various private groups and individuals, SOW was formed to help poor families earn extra income.

The livelihood group of SOW Payatas is composed of 12 members whose ages range from late 20s to 70. They are currently working in a small space inside the St. Vincentian Center, sewing pouches, doormats, and bags, and earning P250 per day.

PBSP is the largest corporate-led social development foundation in the Philippines, with nationwide programs in education, health, livelihood, and the environment.

The country’s largest and only integrated telco, PLDT, is supporting SOW Payatas through its Motolite-PBSP Balik-Baterya Program funds. The Program promotes proper disposal and proper recycling and selling of Used Lead Acid Batteries (ULABs) to fund various corporate social responsibility projects while protecting the environment from toxic and hazardous wastes.