Noryasmin Ali Nasrodin was an incoming Grade 7 student before conflict broke out in Marawi City. She and her family had to flee their home and seek temporary shelter in an evacuation center in Pantar, Lanao del Norte, approximately five kilometers away. They were hardly able to bring any of their things.
Though Noryasmin was accommodated in a school near the Pantar Tent City, where they had been staying since May 23, she eventually stopped going to school. She only had one notebook and one pencil, and was too embarrassed to show up, unable to keep from comparing herself to the other students.
Noryasmin was among the evacuees who lined up for a full meal of rice, chicken curry, and ice-cold juice last December 8, when Alagang Kapatid Foundation’s Foton first-responder food truck visited the Pantar Tent City. It was the third day of the week-long feeding project of Alagang Kapatid Foundation, which served the different evacuation centers and barangays in Marawi City after the Armed Forces of the Philippines declared it as having been cleared.
The feeding project was mainly supported by the P1 million donation of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) to Alagang Kapatid Foundation. It is among the many projects the donation covers.
The week-long feeding was also made possible by the fund-raising efforts of Musikaramay’s benefit concert, held October 24 at the Music Hall in Metrowalk Ortigas; the 3-on-3 basketball tournament joined by musicians, held at the Cuneta Astrodome on November 6; and the BangonMaraWE concert, held at the Araneta Center on September 28. Several individual sponsors also pooled their resources, making it possible for AKFI to extend its AKFEED project for a second round in January 2018.
Alagang Kapatid Foundation’s AKFEED project was able to feed around 3,500 evacuees in seven evacuation centers, and a few hundred troops at Kampo Ranao in Marawi City.
December 8 was also a momentous day for the Provincial Government of Lanao del Sur, as several government and non-government agencies gathered at the provincial capitol in Marawi for the province’s Recognition Day.
TV5’s Chief Finance Officer Ana Isabel Bengzon received the recognition for News5, Alagang Kapatid Foundation, and the members of the MVP CSR Council – PLDT Smart Foundation, Inc., Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, One Meralco Foundation, MAYNILAD, Smart Communications, as well as the Latter Day Saints Charities and JCI Manila.
Bengzon, speaking on behalf of TV5 President Coach Chot Reyes and TV5 Chairman Manny V. Pangilinan, thanked all the donors who trusted Alagang Kapatid Foundation with their donations and expressed admiration for the Provincial Government for mounting such an event, barely a month after Marawi City’s liberation.
Among those recognized by the Provincial Government were other media outfits, from broadcast, print, and social media, rescue units, government line agencies, and other local and international non-governmental organizations.
