Zonta Club of Cebu II redefines brand of service to mitigate the impact of the pandemic

The Zonta Club of Cebu II joined forces with the Mandaue City government, women NGOs and 52 club members to pool resources for of the biggest community pantries in Mandaue City. 

This Zonta community pantry is a service that provides food and other resources directly to locals and the disenfranchised members of the LGBTQ sector, suffering from food insecurity and lack of essential supplies. The community pantry operates on trust systems and encourages donors to give what they can and recipients to take only as much as they need. Tables were filled with canned goods, staples, fruits, vegetables and sanitation essentials. The pantry was able to provide food and necessities for 300 households with at least six persons per family and hygiene kits for 800 people who were selected from the least privileged families in different villages of Mandaue City. 

In a bid to help out impoverished residents who are mobility-impaired and those who cannot afford medical attention, the club donated 15 wheelchairs to disabled women in the remote barangay of Pulang Bato, Talamban. Recipients of the wheelchairs will enjoy increased mobility, live more meaningful lives, participate in income-generating activities and gain self-esteem. 

In health care settings, communication breakdowns between patient and caregiver can have dire consequences, such as increased patient pain, misdiagnoses, drug treatment errors and unnecessary extensions in the length of hospital stay. The club realized that effective and accurate communication between patient and hospital care staff was paramount to the health care of COVID-19 patients who are unable to speak. To help, members produced and distributed 50 simple Alternative and Augmentative Communication Boards tools composed of pictures, illustrations and short words in the local dialect that can quickly and effectively improve communication between patients, family members and caregivers. The communication boards were distributed to the different health centers and hospitals, and the club reproduced and distributed 50 communication boards to the different health centers and hospitals in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. 

Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard Chan with City Legal Officer Atty. Sayson personally received the communication boards during the formal turn-over. Mayor Chan was delighted to have received such innovative ways of communicating to patients and expressed his gratitude to the Zonta Club of Cebu II. To date, each hospital has served 200 patients and an estimate of 800 patients have benefited from these devices.