As the “back end” to the frontlines, the UP-PGH Bayanihan Na! Operations Center (BNOC) works as a call center where donations and patient queries are handled. It was set up with amazing speed and has been operating through the efforts of volunteers: medical interns, faculty, students, and even alumni. Volunteer preparation was just as fast. I signed up a day after attending an orientation by Chancellor Padilla via Zoom. By 31 March, the second day of operations and after training for less than an hour, I was seated and nervously awaiting my first caller. 

It was a new experience for all of us, to call ourselves “agents” instead of “teachers” or “students.” We thought, so this is what it’s like to work at a call center! While up and running, operations were continually evolving as problems came up. On my first day, I learned that a new online data form would replace a one-day old form to deal with what was then a huge “problem” – the flood of food donations. In the following weeks, new scripts had to be added for new concerns.

Amazingly, donors came up with nearly impossible finds: personal protective equipment (PPEs), N-95 respirators, and so many gallons of alcohol made their way to Alvior Hall. There were other things like mattresses and even a month’s supply of pet food — for the frontliners’ furry friends, the donor insisted. These came from all sorts of people, from all walks of life: big and small businesses, fraternities, universities, NGOs, professional associations, school batches, students, private individuals both local and overseas, politicians, “barkadas”, and even from one “Anonymous Friend of PGH”. 

Much more interesting were stories sneaked in by some callers: bureaucratic hurdles to get PPEs from Taiwan; small group of friends pooling their funds; and patients of kind PGH doctors wanting to give back. A lady wanted to donate her late father’s hospital bed. 

There were words of encouragement sneaked in everywhere. Notes saying,“Thank you frontliners! God bless and keep safe!” and Bible verses were stuck on sandwich wrappers, food boxes, and face shields—each one a handcrafted prayer and a gesture of goodwill. 

Taken together, different people, different means, and different strengths; these vignettes composed a picture of the Bayanihan spirit that gave the call center its name. From the frontlines to the back end, we all move forward, carrying our one great burden.

Mishima Z. Miciano, CAS with Prof. Joy Memorando, UPCD
Published in Healthscape Special COVID-19 Issue No. 8