It has been a very challenging past few months for all of us. It was the start of the new year when we first heard about COVID-19, a respiratory disease that originated from Wuhan, China. In just a few weeks, the disease spread throughout the world and has evolved into a pandemic.
Here in the Philippines, the government put the country on lockdown in early March. Schools have been closed indefinitely, people were asked to stay at home, and malls and shops selling non-essential items were asked to stop their operations. Many people also lost their jobs and businesses because they could not operate.
But while life in quarantine has been full of uncertainties, some of us are still lucky to have jobs that we can do at the comforts of our home. We at Dev Partners are fortunate enough to be still working amidst the lockdown. It has been the nature of the company ever since it started, and our operation remains normal. In the midst of what is happening at present, we always ask ourselves: What can we do to help the community?
Dev Partners has always been dedicated to making a difference by giving back to the community. Through the Roland Torres Votacion Foundation, Inc., or RTVF, the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of the comp
any, we were able to reach remote communities that are in dire need of assistance in the time of the pandemic.
RTVF in 2018 started with a mission to provide free education assistance through scholarship and non-scholarship grants to the youth in Arakan, North Cotabato, located in Mindanao in the Philippines. At present, the foundation has 109 scholars: 92 secondary school students, 14 high school students, and 3 college students.
But over the years, we make it a point to launch outreach programs to the little communities we support regularly. Just recently, we reached out to the remote barangays (small village) of Tulunan and Arakan in North Cotabato to extend help to the victim of a massive earthquake. Aside from the feeding programs, we would conduct small events like distributing school supplies and other essential needs.
This month, as we gear up for the 2nd founding anniversary of the foundation, we have put up a 2-day event to distribute scholarship grants to new beneficiaries. Due to the current situation, however, we decided to postpone the event and distribute scholarship grants in discreet to ensure everyone is safe while following recommended safety protocols. No pandemic will ever stop our desire to help.
Our vision remains the same: to see a more sustained community by helping the underprivileged youth and students in the Philippines' indigenous communities. As we work together to stop the spread of the disease in our community, we also work to extend our hands to the people who need it most.