Associate Professor Verjun J. Dilla, together with his family, formed a series of donation drives for the victims of Typhoon Ulysses, a cause-oriented activity of Dunong Center and Maestro Lavandero.
They started accepting donations last November 14 and marked their first and second batch of donations on November 16 and 18. They are planning for the third wave on November 25 through iPRO Trucking.
The said initiative will aid families in Cagayan, Isabela, Marikina and Rizal who were severely affected by the typhoon.
"The firms acted swiftly because of the urgency of situation where our kababayan from Cagayan and Isabela were suffering from hunger and loss of clothing due to floods," Assoc. Prof. Dilla said.
They are accepting clothes, canned food, noodles, blanket, towel, pillow, bottled water, ready-to-eat food and other goods that may help the victims.
The donation drive is a concerted effort of the family. Assoc. Prof. Dilla’s kids are responsible for packing and repacking of goods, and his colleagues provided assistance in this donation drive.
"At first, my family decided to donate our used clothes and some groceries but we deemed it necessary to add more to help more individuals, hence the donation drive…we were very blessed, for a lot of people responded to my call to donate. My wife contacted iPRO Trucking for the hauling of goods from Nueva Ecija to Cagayan. The Cagayan Multi-Purpose Cooperative was the contact group of iPRO Trucking. The coop is in charge in distribution of goods," he shared.
He mentioned that donation drives are a corporate social responsibility of his family that they do yearly, a way for them to thank God for all the blessings they received.
According to him, this practice of sharing started when he was still young. He started to add more beneficiaries after establishing his first business in 2007, and he continues to share to the less fortunate especially on Christmas by giving them gifts every pay day.
"Galing ang pamilya [ko] sa hirap kaya kailangan tumulong ngayon na may kakayahan na…we are all instruments for the victims to feel that they are loved…our pure intention to help the victims stand amid crisis would make them more resilient,” he added.
