Covid-19 Relief Operations: Signs of the Abiding Love of God for His Suffering People To limit the spread of Covid-19 in the Philippines, lockdowns or stayat-home orders, officially called community quarantines by the government, of varying strictness, are imposed in the country. In the order from the strictest to the least strict, the community quarantine categories are the following: 1) enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) or total lockdown, 2) modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), 3) general community quarantine (GCQ), and 4) modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), the least strict. Metro Manila was placed under total lockdown due to Covid-19 on March 15, 2020, the first in the country to experience the community quarantine. The largest of these lockdowns was the ECQ in Luzon from March 17 until April 30, 2020. There are 11 FMA communities in Luzon. One or two weeks later, several provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao also imposed the ECQ that meant that by that time, all 17 FMA communities in the Philippines were under strict community quarantines. Gradually, many provinces transitioned to the less strict community quarantines, but the last to experience this easing of lockdowns was Metro Manila, where there are five FMA communities. Metro Manila was under ECQ, the strictest of the quarantines, from March 15 until May 15, 2020, under general community quarantine (GCQ) since June 2020, and remains in the same status in February 2021. At the beginning of the total lockdown in March, we were all taken by surprise. We were apprehensive, and we tried to figure out what was happening in the world. There were limited ways for us to coordinate with our educating communities. Mostly, we got in touch via social media. Each Sister shared words of encouragement and assurance of prayers with their students, friends, families, and past pupils to make them feel our deep solidarity with them. They were grateful for being remembered during these critical times.
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FMA Lifeline May 2020 - February 2021
