March 15, 2021
Tzu Chi Aids PWD Residents
By Daniel Lazar
Earlier this year, Tzu Chi Foundation volunteers surveyed areas throughout Metro Manila with residents who had been identified by LGUs in Antipolo, Mandaluyong, Quezon City and Pasig, as visually impaired PWD massage therapists. Volunteers started their survey by calling each resident, based on gathered contact information provided by the various LGUs..
Tzu Chi volunteers then formed teams to go visit and interview them at their workplaces. Before the pandemic, each identified beneficiary earned a decent living wage to support themselves and their families. However, since the lockdown of malls & shopping areas in March 2020, they had a difficult time finding other jobs, due to their disabilities.
While some were able to start working again as of September and November of last year, their income was drastically cut as a result of the lower demand for people in their field. As such, understanding their situations made Tzu Chi volunteers unanimously decide to select them as beneficiaries for 3 months of relief distribution.
The first such relief operation took place in Antipolo, with a total of 108 beneficiaries.