Dubai OFWs play basketball for Rolly victims, send groceries too

DUBAI - A group of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) played basketball for a cause while another filled at least two balikbayan boxes with groceries as efforts to send help for victims of Super Typhoon Rolly, which recently devastated the Bicol region, gradually gained momentum in this expatriate city that never sleeps.

Over the weekend, OldSchool Basketboleros founded by Dubai resident Arnel Fernandez, 47, himself a Bicolano, held benefit games for the affected families through its “Tulong Mo, Laro Mo” program.

Six teams with each having up to 12 players participated.   

“Naghahanap ako ng trusted na tao na siyang bahalang mamigay sa mga kalugar ko sa Bicol na totoong isang-kahig-isang-tuka,” Fernandez, who went to Bicol Central College during his high school days, told GMA News Online.

“Hindi naman kalakihan ang nalikom namin, pero makakatulong ang ‘Oldschool Tulong Mo Laro Mo’ kahit konting pantawid-gutom,” he added.

It was not the first time the Oldschool Basketboleros has held a benefit tournament.

A few months back, games were held for a referee who was diagnosed with cancer as well as for an OFW who figured in a motorcycle accident.

The basketball club had also held games for victims of the Taal Volcano eruption in January.

Meantime, a group of more than 10 other OFWs did some grocery shopping but not for themselves. They did so to share in at least two balikbayan boxes to be sent to a local government unit in Tiwi, Albay free of charge by a cargo forwarder who is doing it as a matter of corporate social responsibility.

“Ipa-pack pa lang po and we will have it shipped on Nov. 14,” said Sid Rivera, also a Dubai resident. He said they were still waiting for other donors to send in their groceries. “Yung iba kasi hinihintay lang 'yung sahod,” he added.

OFWs in the UAE, estimated to be around 750,000, have in the past been among the first to respond to emergencies happening back home, pooling together resources and sending them in balikbayan boxes.

Rolly, the strongest tropical cyclone this year observed worldwide, first made landfall over Bato, Catanduanes on Nov. 1.

It has affected the Bicol region and Southern Luzon, leaving at least 25 people dead and 399 injured according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

At least six people were reported missing and over a million individuals were affected. —KG, GMA News