Alumni association seizes chance to help amid crisis

WITH many areas in the country seemingly  set  to graduate or  have  graduated  from an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) to a General Community Quarantine (GCQ), the ongoing pandemic gave light as to how people reacted during a crisis.

While some took advantage of the situation in a negative way, others who were in the same boat during these challenging times have shown extraordinary behavior in helping fellow people who like them, have to cope up with stress and trouble due to covid 19, on the strength of their upbringing and moral foundation that they learned from their school.

The same goes for the alumni of Sta. Teresa College in Bauan, Batangas, as they launched last April 2020 their program with the theme “Tulong Teresian,” a humanitarian mission engaged in distributing relief packs to those who were badly hit and caught by the lockdown due to this pandemic.  They were guided by the school’s tenets:concern, responsibility and service.

Atty. Nicasio Conti, the former chief of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, and president of the Sta. Teresa College Alumni Association, spearheaded the help to fellow Teresians.  They used the online platform to reach out to the alumni community.

“Our Tulong Teresian program became possible even when I was in Manila during the period of quarantine, and the Facebook group administrators are miles away as they are located in various parts of the globe — USA, Canada, Singapore and the Philippines.  The time difference ensured that someone is glued to the Tulong Teresian FB page to sort requests and identify the recipient’s respective batches. The lists were downloaded to our operations center in Batangas for the preparation of relief packs. We have ready volunteer coordinators and distributors who rose to the challenge of ensuring that relief goods will reach our intended  beneficiaries: former teachers, alumni, faculty,  staff and non-teaching personnel as well as Teresian frontliners,” Atty. Conti said.

Atty. Conti, himself a victim of the lockdown as he was forced to stay in Manila during the ECQ, found a way to help his fellow Batanguenos in the 2nd District by providing relief goods- rice, canned goods, milk, biscuits, noodles and eggs. He was able to give more than 3,000 relief packs under the Tulong Teresian program.

“Distance is not a hindrance if you really want to help others and make a difference in their lives,” Atty. Conti stressed.

Atty. Conti played a dual role in helping fellow Batanguenos and Teresian almuni to get through the hard times, with many having problems due to loss of income during the lockdown.  He also provided online advise to those who had problems with securing the subsidy under Social Amelioration Program (SAP).

Netizens and fellow Teresians thanked the “Tulong Teresian” group, especially Atty. Conti for the herculean effort, bucking the odds despite the situation.