Post-Pandemic Possibilities: SDRC Conducts Face-to-Face Social Engagement in Mindoro

It was proof that the pandemic need not matter: The Social Development Research Center continued its social engagement outreach activities with its first face-to-face visit to a vulnerable community two years since the interruption caused by COVID-19 in March 2020.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to continue with the program now that health restrictions have eased, the visit to a Mangyan partner community in Sitio Banilad, Dulangan 2 in Baco, Oriental Mindoro was conducted on the morning of March 31, capping a week of events commemorating the Center’s 43^rd anniversary.

The SDRC Team led by its Director Dr. Melvin Jabar and including members of the core staff and former research assistants, and staff from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation and the Department of Sociology and Behavioral Science, was able to distribute relief goods to 160 households in the community. Ms. Julie Panaligan assisted the team in the distribution, as well as in the feeding of lugaw prepared by the staff to some 80 grade school children.

At the end of the activity the SDRC Team was serenaded by the students, who sang a “pasasalamat” song of gratitude. In response, Visiting Researcher Coordinator Rommel Billena offered a song to the community.

The activity brought a fitting close to this year’s anniversary activities, which had as a theme “Introspection and Application: Making a Post-Pandemic World Possible.”