Village Pipol launches Veinte Pesos, a donation drive for dialysis patients

In this time of global health crisis caused by coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the whole world needs more empathy and compassion. As of March 31, there are 2,084 confirmed cases in our country — and it is growing exponentially every day. Aside from this overwhelming number, our country — and the whole world — has been suffering from this chaos in all aspects, affecting a nation’s well-being.

Donation Drive

Scroll through your social media accounts and you’ll see how people, government, and private sectors work together to help fight this pandemic. We have seen them providing relief to communities, especially to poor people. We have witnessed celebrities initiate donation drives for unprivileged ones to help them survive during this quarantine.

For the past two weeks, the enhanced community quarantine imposed by our government has been limiting people from their usual daily activities — including employment, at least for the half of the local workforce population. This has caused a major dilemma for most of us on how to survive in this month-long isolation without any financial sources.

For some, food and shelter have always been their priorities, however there is a sector in our community that has been greatly affected more than what we expected — dialysis patients. It is more than a war against a deadly disease for them, it is a daily battle for their lives. It is an unending strive for breath and chances. But the question is: how can these patients access their dialysis treatment if they do not have the financial means to do so?

Dialysis Patients need help

“CKD patients are the people who have kidney failure and need to undergo dialysis treatments 2-3 times a week to clean the toxins in their body. The dialysis machines are the alternative for their kidneys since it is not functioning. A dialysis treatment will cost them P300-P600 (with Phil health) up to P2,000-3,000 (without Phil health) per session, not to mention their maintenance which also costs them P1,500-P2,500 per week.

A normal person with a minimum wage per day would really have a difficulty paying for the expenses a CKD patient has. How much more for these patients who most of them don’t have work because of their disease. It is only their family or the government agencies that are helping them financially but in times of the Covid-19 Pandemic there would be no chance for them to go to government offices to ask help,” Alexandra Faith Garcia, RED Sports Operations Head and an active advocate for dialysis disease awareness.

Veinte Pesos

For the past years, Village Pipol Magazine, together with RED Sports under RED Entertainment, has been supporting Dialysis PH Support Group Inc., a patients-relative support group for chronic kidney disease. In this global health crisis, more than food and protection from the COVID-19, these people need more support for their treatment. For this reason, we are launching Veinte Pesos, a donation drive for dialysis patients in this time of need. Your 20 pesos can save a life!

This project is headed by PR and Advertising Manager Josh Austria.

“Ang maiipon na tulong ay ipapaabot natin sa atin mga patient members na tunay na nangangailangan,” Reynaldo S. Abacan Jr, Dialysis PH Support Group Inc. Founder, said.

For those interested donors, you can donate as low as Php 20.00 through G-Cash. The aim of this initiative is to provide financial assistance to patient members of Dialysis PH Support Group who are undergoing dialysis treatment. For more information, you can check the poster below on how to donate.