DOST, partners provide goods to Bantay – Basura volunteers

May 3, 2020 Provincial

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet, Apr. 30 (PIA) – Volunteers for the management of garbage in this municipality got a boost from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) that spearheaded the donation of rice and face masks.
DOST Provincial Science and Technology Center head Sheila Marie Claver led the delivery of 25 sacks of 25 – kilogram rice and 200 face masks to the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office here last April 24 for re-packing and distribution to the 176 “Bantay – Basura” volunteers of the municipality.
Cecil Dionisio of PSTC – Benguet shared that they got the idea of providing relief assistance when a group from Quezon City gave them P10, 500 incentives for responding to their request for assistance to purchase highland vegetables from Benguet.
Dionisio related that PSTC – Benguet coordinated with the local government of Tublay for the purchase of P1, 250 packs of vegetables from local farmers this lockdown. The initiative also provided cash assistance to the volunteers that repacked the vegetables into individual pack of five kilos each.
With the P10, 500 that the buyer gave as incentive, PSTC – Benguet planned to use it for the production of face masks but MENRO head Art Pedro suggested the provision of assistance to the Bantay Basura volunteers that receive minimal incentive, Dionisio said.
PSTC – Benguet with additional donations from DOST staff and some friends came up with P25, 000 that they used to buy rice.
The face masks were donated by DOST SETUP (Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program) cooperators Maribel Linggon of Mabel’s Tailoring and Judith Alfonso of Twin Jade Mae Fashion.
Aside from the MENRO volunteers, the two SETUP coordinators are also helping PSTC – Benguet in the distribution of face masks to the different barangay frontliners in Baguio and Benguet. DOST – CAR headed by Regional Director Dr. Nancy Bantog, along with the different PSTCs in the region and their partners such as SETUP coordinators have been working to find ways in helping the frontliners in the in the different communities of Cordillera in the fight against COVID – 19.
JDP/CCD-PIA CAR