Dear BTPA
Greetings from Bahay Tuluyan, still in quarantine!
Just wanted to give you another update about where things are at in relation to COVID-19 in the Philippines, especially at BT. Quarantine, which started on March 16 was recently extended, again, until May 31 in both Manila and Laguna. Restrictions have been lifted slightly in Quezon where they have moved from ‘Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ)’ to ‘General Community Quarantine’ (GCQ).
The number of cases in the Philippines is still rising, though not exponentially (currently around 14,000 total cases). The doubling time as of May 18 was 5.53 days. Despite a very extended lockdown, there still remains very limited mass testing and contact tracing being done so the true extent of infection and spread is unknown.
At Bahay Tuluyan we are continuing to shelter around 100 children and youth in our 4 different sites. Our summer camp (modified to be a stay-at-home version) recently concluded as did our modified Independent Living Skills Camp for youth. In between camps and lots of games our children have been busy on our farms, especially in Quezon where we just harvested our latest crop of naturally grown black rice.
The government has recently postponed the opening of the next school year from the beginning of June until the end of August or until a vaccine is available. This means that our children will not be in formal schooling for a total of at least 5 months (from March when classes were stopped).
At Bahay Tuluyan we are starting to implement a home-based supplemental learning program to keep children engaged and learning from May until August. Unfortunately, most of the children that we work with on the street and community will have very limited or no access to educational stimulation during this period. It is expected that even when schooling starts this will not be entirely face-to-face which again poses problems for the many children we work with who have limited or no access to internet/TV etc. We are hoping that once restrictions are lifted we might be able to offer small group learning sessions through our Drop-In Center. This will depend however on when GCQ is lifted as children are not allowed to leave the house during GCQ.
We feel very grateful that we have not experienced any more COVID cases close to us and we continue to be very vigilant in relation to keeping our centers and people as safe as we can. We have recently opened up part of our guesthouse (Makabata) to provide much-needed accommodation to a small group of nurse frontliners under very careful protocols. We are exploring whether we can also cater to the large numbers of people who are ‘stranded in Manila’ due to quarantine.
We have continued to provide food relief packages for families who are vulnerable. To date we have distributed 4 rounds of food relief, distributing a total of 2268 packages to an average of 560 families per round. We know that families will take a while to get back on their feet so are hoping, funding dependent, to be able to continue this direct assistance twice a month until August.
Finally, we are continuing to closely monitor the human rights situation as it evolves in this pandemic. Unfortunately, there has been continuing arrests relating to quarantine and there is a heightened military presence in the areas we work. One of the Philippines major TV and radio networks was ordered off the air just over 2 weeks ago in what is broadly understood to have been at the order of the President (although the Palace adamantly denies this) and there have been several highly publicised arrests of people who have criticised the administration. We continue, within our means, to reach out and respond to children, youth and families, who are experiencing violence or abuse of authority.
We hope that you are staying safe and that our scientists find a vaccine soon!
Kind regards,
Lily and Catherine
PS … Note from BTPA – we have raised over $30,000 to support the work at Bahay Tuluyan – thanks everyone!
