To further capacitate the humanitarian organization especially in this time of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) received five new ambulances, additional medical equipment, and other supplies from the Bloomberry Foundation.
“Their donation has surely gone a long way in helping the most at risk and the most vulnerable,” said PRC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Senator Dick Gordon.
“This initiative has indeed further strengthened the Red Cross humanitarian efforts to uplift human dignity, especially in this time of the ongoing pandemic,” he added.
PRC Safety Services procured two negative pressure ambulances last April 2020 for COVID-19 response operations from the Bloomberry fund.
“With the arrival of the five new ambulances today, we now have 175 ambulances nationwide,” Gordon said.
On Aug. 5, 2019, the PRC received a PP124,067,000 grant from Bloomberry Cultural Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of Solaire Resorts and Casinos to support its humanitarian aid programs.
Of this amount, P50 million was allotted to the National Blood Services to establish six new blood facilities; P64 million was for the PRC Dialysis Samaritan Program, and P10 million is to capacitate the PRC Olongapo Chapter.
After two years, six new PRC Blood Facilities were established in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, Imus, Cavite, Mindoro Oriental, Sorsogon, Coron Palawan, and Novaliches, using P50 million to fund the construction of the blood facilities and equipment.
Meanwhile, the P64 million of the grant also covered 9,360 dialysis treatment sessions of indigent patients under the PRC Samaritan Program from January 2019 to December 2019.
Likewise, P10 million was also allocated to the PRC Olongapo Chapter to fund the Communications Center (Operations Center), providing critical response equipment like an ambulance, a mobile kitchen, and rescue equipment.
From January to October of this year, PRC has served over 120,339 patients and 318,822 units through its National Blood Services.
PRC added that in 2021, it has also catered to 70 Hemodialysis patients and has done 3,340 treatments.