For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Leezel Tanglao
leezel.tanglao@fylpro.org
August 8, 2020
60 Bamboo Beds For Philippine COVID-19 Patients Built and Delivered Through FYLPRO-Funded Project
On June 25, 2020, the Filipino Young Leaders Program (FYLPRO), through its COVID-19 Relief Fund, awarded $2,000 to Kawayan Collective, a Philippines-based workers cooperative that collects, treats, and sells construction-grade bamboo. The funds helped double Kawayan Collective’s COVID-19 response capacity, resulting in the manufacture of a total of 60 beds for coronavirus patients in the central Visayas region. The beds were delivered to Dumaguete, Negros Oriental for two separate quarantine facilities which have been immediately put to use as authorities in Metro Manila have encouraged all those who can safely do so to return to their homes in the provinces.
“Thanks to FYLPRO’s (support), we were able to donate an additional 30 beds, which will be split between the next two major towns of Negros Oriental, Bayawan and Bais City,” said FYLPRO alumnus Ray Villanueva, who co-founded Kawayan Collective in 2017. “Now, we are notifying the towns that have had to close their doors due to lack of quarantine facilities of the availability of locally-made bamboo beds in their efforts to help people safely quarantine to reduce transmission.”
Four days a week “sweeper” flights have been helping to shuttle stranded individuals back to the province, and if they do not have the money to pay for two weeks private quarantine at an approved hotel, they can avail of the government facilities with bamboo beds, according to Villanueva.
About the FYLPRO COVID-19 Task Force
In response to the ongoing crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, FYLPRO formed the COVID-19 Task Force in April 2020 to tackle the specific needs of Filipinos in the diaspora and back home. As part of the formation of this task force, the COVID-19 Relief Fund was created to support these efforts.
The FYLPRO COVID-19 Task Force is looking to identify other opportunities for collaboration both in the United States and the Philippines. If you are aware of potential partner organizations or prospective beneficiaries for FYLPRO’s COVID-19 regional relief program, please complete our information request form. Donations to the FYLPRO COVID-19 Relief Fund are also being accepted at fylpro.org/support. For additional questions, please email covidresponse@fylpro.org.
About Filipino Young Leaders Program (FYLPRO)
The Filipino Young Leaders Program (FYLPRO) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization of high-performing, next-generation leaders that have a passion for advancing the Philippines and the Filipino people.
FYLPRO was established in 2012 by the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC in cooperation with the Ayala Foundation, Inc. (AFI) to annually identify outstanding young professionals in the Filipino communities across the United States and provide the delegates with invaluable community, business, and government insights and access to distinguished network captains of industry and government. For more information about FYLPRO, please visit fylpro.org.
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