Sagip Iskolar sa Metro Manila ng mga Dating Iskolar ng KOICA – 2 May 2020
As an organization composed of scholars, it is no surprise that one of the sectors served by the Philippine KOICA Fellows Association (PhilKOFA) to help the government combat Covid-19 are the scholars. When the national government imposed enhanced community quarantine in the entire Luzon last 15 May 2020, many student living in dormitories found themselves stranded with no access to basic necessities and their respective families not being able to give support because of the said pronouncement. Recognizing this plight of scholars, PhilKOFA through its Board of Trustees selected them to be one of the beneficiaries of its LingaPhilkofa Kontra Covid 19 Project and was aptly titled Sagip Iskolar sa Metro Manila.
The Sagip Iskolar sa Metro Manila benefited 100 stranded scholars, 60 from University of the Philippines Diliman and 40 from Rizal Technological University. All were given food packs based on the list of what they needed which are mostly instant food such as biscuits, coffee, chocolate drink, ready-to-eat canned goods and noodles. Said packs were distributed on 2 May 2020 but preparation was done before with the help of 9th Parallel Services.
Due to strict quarantine measures, physical interaction with the stranded scholars was not allowed but pictures of the recipients were sent to PhilKOFA expressing their gratitude. While this project did not allow close encounter with the scholars, the school representatives who received the gift packs on behalf of the students were briefed on what PHILKOFA and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) are and what they do. It was explained that these stranded scholars, the chosen recipients of the former scholars are possibly future KOICA fellows, too.
