‘Hapag Bayanihan’ helps the helpers

Eleven-year-old Migo Kaw is doing his part to help victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda”—by making sandwiches that can keep other relief volunteers going.

“I just want to help,” said the sixth-grader, one of the young ones who joined “Hapag Bayanihan,” a project launched Saturday at Xavier School in San Juan City, which aimed to “help the helpers” by preparing snacks for those manning various repacking centers in the metropolis.

As of 10 a.m., around 70 students and parents from the Xavier community had signed up for Hapag, producing some 2,000 sandwiches ready for delivery.

“Since many organizations are conducting their own relief operations for the typhoon victims, we decided to do this. We wanted a different approach,” said Jane Cacacho, the high school principal. “In the bigger scheme of things, we can help this way.”

The sandwiches were to be sent out to the different relief repacking centers set up by Caritas Manila, Department of Social Welfare and Development GMA Kapuso Foundation, ABS-CBN, Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University, she said.

It was the first time the school mobilized to provide a sort of support service to other volunteers, although Xavier had consistently contributed to past relief efforts, like in the aftermath of “Ondoy,” another killer storm that hit Metro Manila in 2009.

The latest calamity may be centered in the Visayas region, Cacacho said, “but actually, nobody was spared by Yolanda. When something this big happens, we have to move and mobilize as a country. This is our way of contributing to that.”