By Mary Judaline Partlow April 16, 2020, 3:34 pm
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1099971
DUMAGUETE CITY – Geothermal power leader Energy Development Corporation (EDC) has launched "Tabang Dumaguete" in joining the provincial government of Negros Oriental in the fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Norreen Bautista, head of EDC’s CSR team in Negros and in Mount Apo, said this is part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), considering that it operates a 222.5-megawatt geothermal facility in Valencia, Negros Oriental.
EDC's CSR team and other site employees have initiated several forms of assistance since the first positive case of Covid-19 was confirmed in the province, she said in a statement on Wednesday.
Gathered monetary donations from site employees have reached a total of PHP175,000, to help address the needs of the city’s marginalized sectors and support medical front-liners.
The team likewise launched another employee fundraising campaign dubbed as “Shoulder-to-shoulder”, to supplement the needs of the facility’s daily contractors and their families.
“As we do our best to be healthy and safe, we are also all hands on deck in helping our partner communities and even those in the city,” Bautista said.
EDC recently loaned a 20-ft air-conditioned container van to the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital (NOPH), which is currently being used as NOPH’s extension and a swab facility for suspected Covid-19 cases.
Dr. Marc Angelo Llosa, Provincial Health Officer II, and NOPH chief thanked EDC for allowing the use of the container van, which was delivered recently to the provincial hospital.
The Department of Health had also utilized the same container van for the packing of specimens for testing at the Vicente Sotto Medical Memorial Hospital in Cebu City.
EDC has likewise donated over a hundred personal protective equipment (PPE) suits to NOPH that were fabricated by local designers who are working together to help the front-liners in Dumaguete City under "Project Silver Lining".
The company will donate more PPE units to other hospitals once these are delivered.
Sacks of rice for almost 5,000 households in EDC’s host barangays in Valencia town, along with food packs for front-liners, those manning the checkpoints, and those affected by work stoppage during the community quarantine, were likewise distributed.
Further, six infrared thermal scanners were given to those manning checkpoints while 32 folding beds were turned over to the Valencia Rural Health Unit.
“We thank our colleagues who have been contributing to our fundraising activities for the marginalized. It is their way of paying forward to share EDC’s care and compassion for us,” Bautista said in a phone interview.
EDC is the country’s premier renewable energy company and one of the world’s largest geothermal producers.
Its geothermal facilities in Valencia, Negros Oriental has been providing clean, renewable, reliable power 24/7 to Negros Island and other parts of the Visayas region for over 36 years.
“We give not because we can but because we can imagine what it feels to be hungry,” Richard B. Tantoco, president and chief operating officer of the Lopez-led EDC, was quoted as saying in the statement. (PNA)
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