“The Iglesia Ni Cristo is continuing and expanding its campaign against poverty worldwide, and we’ve focused our efforts in the US this whole month of August.”
Executive Minister Eduardo V. Manalo made the remark after the Filipino church announced that it had conducted a month-long series of “Lingap sa Mamamayan-Aid to Humanity” activities in the American mainland, starting last Aug. 11 and 12 in New York and Washington DC and culminating on Aug. 25 at Rockford, Illinois.
Other venues included Seattle, Washington (Aug. 14), Memphis, Tennessee (Aug. 16), Oakland, California (Aug. 17), San Carlos, Arizona (Aug. 19), San Diego, California (Aug. 23) and Los Angeles, California (Aug. 24).
Lingap and Aid to Humanity programs are conducted under the auspices of the Felix Y. Manalo Foundation.
During the opening activities in NYC and the US capital, the INC distributed 4,000 “goodwill bags” which included school supplies, canned goods, toiletries, and home provisions to thousands of attendees as well as cash gifts to fifteen organizations and shelter-partners, with each group receiving $10,000.
Meanwhile, INC Auditor General Glicerio B. Santos, Jr. noted that this year’s aid caravan was “much bigger than our initial Aid to Humanity efforts last year in North America, with more target areas and vastly increased number of recipients.”
An estimated 16,000 beneficiaries attended the various events from coast to coast.
The activities are geared toward adults and children alike, with many having giveaways of food, first aid kits, education supplies, as well as entertainment activities, medical checkups for people of all ages, and face-painting and balloon-making segments for kids.
“Our recipients are also diverse, from Girl Scout and theater groups, police and firefighters, to the homeless and the elderly. In the Aid to Humanity event at San Carlos, Arizona, for instance, members of Native American Apache groups were in attendance,” Santos said.
“We were also requested by the Los Angeles-based Philippine Consular Office to conduct special Lingap activities for Fil-Am World War II veterans, which we did,” he added.
Lingap activities included a brief film showing on the INC’s outreach initiatives in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia-New Zealand.
Last May, INC provided assistance to needy and marginalized groups in Montreal, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver.
In late 2018 and early 2019, huge Aid to Humanity and Lingap sa Mamamayan programs were held in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Macau, and ong Kong, with close to 8,000 overseas Filipino workers attending.
“The INC provides assistance irrespective of nationality, gender, religious, and political affiliation. We are guided by the mandate of our Executive Minister Eduardo V. Manalo to address poverty, and we do our best to accomplish this goal through both material and spiritual assistance. That’s what makes our Lingap activities unique,” Santos said.