The pandemic had taken a toll on most of us, whether it’s with our careers, businesses or even just everyday life. But what does it take to help those in need during the pandemic? We sit down with wheninmanila.com’s outreach partner BMC to hear their story about helping others and how you could help too.
BMC was founded by Ave Pulma III in February 2015 where they focused on helping indigenous communities. “We started the mountain of Mariveles Ranges wherein a small community of Aetas living in the area. Approximately 50 families around the shoulder of the mountain”, Ave shared.
When asked about how the group came about, Ave shares that it started with his love for mountaineering as well as her mom’s. “I am a mountaineer since when I was 10 years old. My mom also climb mountains and travel places to teach indigenous kids, she also conducted teaching in late smokey mountain times”, Ave reminisced.
“Fast forward, 2014 I joined one outreach program in Nueva Ecija together with one of my hiking buddies. After the outreach program my friend asks me a question, Can you facilitate or organize such outreach for indigenous kids? It is a real challenge for me because before I climb mountains I give pieces of pencils to every kid on our way. So I decided to conduct one as a trial. And God indeed is in control of everything”, Ave added.
Wheninmanila.com started partnering with BMC in 2017 for the 6th leg of Dulot sa Kulot in Brgy. Dibutunan in Aurora Province. The program focused on creating safe spaces to learn for students from kinder to grade 6. The group of 4-50 individuals handled all the logistics and distribution in the programs.
“We want to help kids in unreached areas like mountains and islands here in our country”, Ave said.
Though the group initially started by just helping indigenous kids, they expanded to helping all Filipinos devastated by calamities and those in need during the pandemic. They reached far-flung areas in Casiguran, Abra, and Bicol aside from different cities in Metro Manila.
The group continued to help during calamities in Metro Manila that badly affected the city of Marikina and the Province of Rizal. The group had partnered with wheninmanila.com and private companies to set up community pantries in hard-to-reach barangays.
Aside from giving essentials to those in need, BMC also does teaching and feeding programs in these locations. The group had also led to rebuilding classrooms and donating chairs and tables in Sorsogon. “The group also help one island in Casiguran to have their own Electricity line and power wherein the group donated computers and build a computer classroom”, Ave added.
We asked Ave what was the challenges to doing outreach and he shared that it is usually logistics. “We used cars for Ocular visits and the outreach program itself. For volunteers and for supplies and donations”, he said.
BMC tries to reach hard-to-reach communities and mobility is quite important to bring donations and service to those in need. Ave shares that if they didn’t have vehicles, they will not be able to do what they do.
“We used cars for Ocular visits and the outreach program itself. For volunteers and for supplies and donations” he shared when asked about the importance of mobility.
Ave personally uses a Toyota Yaris, Vios and Fortuner during the programs and it depends on the need of their programs. In one program, BMC went to Marikina with the Hilux Cargo to bring more help to those affected by the recent typhoon.
“The Hilux Cargo was perfect for the big boxes that we have to bring and to distribute to those in need”, shared Ave.
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As the pandemic continues to ravage the country, more and more Filipinos are in need of kind hearts and a little bit of help and BMC continues to help at these challenging times.
To volunteer or donate, join BMC/DSK group on Facebook.
