ARCORES International and CST-R assist fire victims in the Philippines

Last September 6, 2024, a fire swept through the town of San Carlos, Negros Occidental (Philippines) leaving 109 families homeless. ARCORES International, together with the Community Development and Outreach Office (CEDO) of the Colegio de Sto.
Tomas-Recoletos School Inc. assisted these families and offered them basic food items, such as rice or canned goods.

This fire has been one of the most severe recorded in the city since the beginning of the pandemic, and the affected community is only one block from the Augustinian Recollect convent of San Carlos.

Immediate response from the Community

In response to the tragedy, the Augustinian Recollect community, along with volunteers, quickly mobilized to provide support.
The next morning, the religious distributed drinking water and food to those affected.
Later, student volunteers from different organizations, such as Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) officers, leaders of the Supreme Student Council and READS scholars, joined hands to provide clothing and essential items to the families who had been moved to the Barangay IV Gymnasium, set up as an evacuation center.

ARCORES International Assistance

Through CEDO, ARCORES International also sent immediate aid by delivering 14-kilogram bags of rice and canned goods to the victims of the fire last September 21, 2024.
The families, who at press time were rebuilding their homes and gradually leaving the evacuation center, were grateful to ARCORES and the Augustinian Recollect community because they now had gifts to take to their new homes.
Rev.
P. Monday Benjamin Edobor, CST-R vice president for identity, formation and mission, led the operations with volunteers from ROTC officers, READS scholars and Thomasian staff .

This operation preceded the previous delivery of Solidarity Boxes last September 12, 2024, which CST-R Chairman Rev.
P. Christopher C. Maspara, OAR, personally directed.

Each Solidarity Box delivered to the families contained hygiene and laundry kits, snack packs, rice and canned food donated by the Thomasians of the High School.
For their part, the students and teachers of the Senior High School donated school supplies, from paper to pencils and pens, for the 75 schoolchildren who lost their learning materials in the fire.