The Australian government has been lauded with its swift action to implement control measures to stem COVID-19.  While these resulted in preventing the spread of the virus, they have impacted on businesses and subsequently employment. These included the shutting down of businesses which are not considered to provide "essential services". One of the groups affected are Filipinos on student visas who relied on some income from working a maximum of twenty hours a week.

   It is heartwarming to see many community groups, grocery shops and restaurants have extended help to the students by giving them free food packages and even cooked food. One of these groups gaining attention and support is a Facebook group Adopt A Filo Student in Aussie. This is another example of a good cause where social media is proving to be a valuable medium in reaching out to the students needing help and individuals who are able to provide assistance.

We were able to get in touch with Greta Matocenio, the founder of the group, to know about the initiative.   In an interview to be aired in Radio Tagumpay* on Monday, May 4, we are glad to share the information she gladly shared with us.

Birth of Adopt a Filo Student in Aussie

 Greta Matocenio, 33 years, who hails from Quezon is a Registered Nurse in an Emergency department in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.  Despite working in the frontline like his husband Dave who delivers groceries, and having a four year old daughter and one a half year old son, she felt compelled to form the 'Adopt' group.


Greta shared how the group was started. 

"I was invited to join a Facebook group “Adopt a Health Care Worker” which is an initiative by the community to help and thank the front-liners for what we do for them in the midst of the pandemic. It is a very successful initiative and a lot of people have helped. A lot have help with running an errands, providing cooked meals, sewing headcover up to dropping off care packs for the medical workers. Though I am grateful for what they do for us, I felt there are other people in the community who do not get much help if none at all in the times of this pandemic, and includes the international students.

"So I initiated this drive by creating a page called ADOPT A FILO STUDENT IN AUSSIE, with the main objective of helping our my fellow kababayans who are in need of help. A lot of them have lost employment, have no family support in Australia and are not of priority for assistance or for employment given the current circumstances. The help we give are in in-kind forms (groceries, cooked meals, care packs, kid pack (for families with kids)."

We spoke to Greta when the campaign was less than a week from when it started on April 16. It had a total of 132 members which include students and sponsors.  Through invitations to personal friends and colleagues from work, who then invited their own friends, 'Adopt' grew its membership by leaps and bounds.  At the time they have sponsored 42 students.   Fast forward to now, the growth of the group has been phenomenal.

Greta was happy to provide the following update:

"At the moment we have 2400+ members. It is hard to tell how many per suburbs. Most of of them are in NSW. We have more students now from Victoria. About 10 in WA, and a few in Tasmania. One sponsor, a friend of a friend from the USA even sponsored a few students. Most sponsors provide groceries and others through grocery vouchers and click and collect. Filipinos are very generous and you could really feel the spirit of bayanihan. Some of the sponsors have lost jobs themselves but are happy to share what they have to others who are greatly impacted by the pandemic.

"Sponsors specially has a soft spot for families, with young kids. And would provide kiddie packs, baby essentials on top of the grocery items. It’s amazing that in the middle of chaos and anxiety, ordinary people come as one to help their fellow countrymen even in the littlest way possible. A few students who messaged me said that apart from the help they get with groceries, food and other needs, it is the feeling of belongingness that makes them stay in the group.

"I am very grateful to all the people that has supported this cause. I started it 2 weeks ago thinking If I could help some students through assistance from my personal friends, then I’m happy. But I didn’t imagine it would come up to this, so my friends, friends of friends, family, church mates, neighbours and colleagues of friends have now extended help to our Filo students."

Mechanics of Adopt a Filo Student in Aussie

The mechanism used by this successful initiative is very simple.   Students and sponsors join the group through its FB page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/160012441987471/

The sponsors put a comment where they are based and how many students they would like to extend assistance to. The students who are in or nearby that location responds to indicate they are needing help and to express their thanks;  then arrangements are made between the two parties on regarding pick up of food packs and other items.

Looking through the postings, we have also noted that there were sponsors who also indicated willingness to help anyone from any area by sending vouchers. 

To illustrate how the initiative works, we are sharing the latest postings by sponsors on the page at the time of this writing:

Glo Mendoza Soriano:

Hi, I'm happy to help a student in Woodcroft/Doonside area.

Rem Sioson-Belen:
"Hi, anyone living around lower North Shore area? We are happy to sponsor 4 students who don’t have sponsor yet. If you are not in the North Shore area, that’s ok, we can arrange for online shopping or grocery voucher for you. Just pm me. "

Alice Dumlao:
"Good evening. Still waiting for students living in the Punchbowl & Bankstown areas."

Jowe E Tunes:

Hi guys. We live around Sans Souci area. We can organise some online vouchers at the moment if you need some stuff.

Donna Fe:

Thanks for adding me Elaine Dagasdas. ? If there's any student from here in Greenwich or any nearby suburb, please DM me. I'm near St. Leonards, Crows Nest, North Sydney, Lane Cove, Chatswood, etc... Happy to drive and drop the grocery pack to you.

Caroline Cabalsa:

Hi!! I live in Lane Cove and Happy to help 2 students around the area or surrounding suburbs.

In closing, we asked Greta what inspired her to undertake this initiative.

She said: "I was once an international student, eight years back and starting out with almost nothing but my big dreams and ambitions. This was my motivating factor to keep pushing my self beyond limits. There was a time I was left with only $5 in my hands, with no work, no family overseas to help me fund my needs. I survived with some help and trust of beautiful people who I met through the Lord’s grace. I know how it feels to have nothing."

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*Radio Tagumpay airs on Mondays, 2-4pm at Triple H 100.1FM; can be streamed via: https://www.triplehfm.com.au/    

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