On behalf of the senior citizens of Los Baños, Municipal Mayor Antonio L. Kalaw (third from right) holds a bottle each of calamansi concentrate and alcohol and Mr. Florentino O. Montemayor, President of the Los Baños Federation of Senior Citizens, holds 5 kg of brown rice received from SEARCA Director Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio (center). With them in the photo are Mr. Joselito G. Florendo (second from right), SEARCA Deputy Director for Administration; Dr. Romeo V. Labios (rightmost), Operations Consultant for Partnerships, Ms. Hanna Lavina (second from left) who heads the Los Baños Municipal Social Welfare Department, and a representative from the Los Baños Federation of Senior Citizens.
Nobel laureate Pearl S. Buck once wrote “Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.”
It is in this spirit that the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) has included the elderly among the beneficiaries of its community outreach activities implemented under its Community Relations Program.
Dr. Gregorio tells Mayor Kalaw that SEARCA seeks to be more inclusive, hence it started to reach out to senior citizens in its community.
Municipal Mayor Antonio L. Kalaw received from SEARCA Director Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio on behalf of the senior citizens of Los Baños the nutrition and hygiene kits donated by SEARCA for indigent elderly residents of Los Baños. Each care package contains brown rice, calamansi concentrate, face masks, and alcohol.
Mr. Manuel S. Alejar (right), SEARCA Liaison for Community Relations, gives a short briefing on SEARCA’s Community Relations Program.
Mr. Florentino O. Montemayor, President of the Los Baños Federation of Senior Citizens, was also present during the ceremonial handover along with Mr. Joselito G. Florendo, SEARCA Deputy Director for Administration; Dr. Romeo V. Labios, SEARCA Operations Consultant for Partnerships; Mr. Manuel S. Alejar, SEARCA Liaison for Community Relations; Partnerships Unit staff; and other SEARCA unit heads and staff.
Inasmuch as SEARCA would like to include all senior citizens in the municipality among the recipients of its care packages, the Center has limited resources. The nutrition and hygiene kits will therefore go to 50 pre-identified elderly constituents who are frail, sickly or with disability, and who neither receive pension nor have regular support from relatives. The recipients were jointly selected by SEARCA and the Municipal Social Welfare Department (MSWD) headed by Ms. Hanna Lavina, who was also present during the handover. The distribution of the kits will be led by the MSWD staff.