Tzu Chi Foundation’s extensive Clean Up Drive focused on almost the entire Marikina City where 15 assigned voting precincts in 13 barangays out of the total 16 barangays of the city were collectively cleaned by the 509 Tzu Chi volunteers, local volunteers of Marikina and staff of Tzu Chi Foundation.

Even though the day for the national elections was declared a holiday, the Tzu Chi volunteers still dedicated time and energy to show their care for Mother Earth and bring inspiration to the voters.

With each participant keeping in mind that the activity aims to take good care of our surroundings by lessening the garbage and will help the needy people since the sales of the collected recyclables will go to them; they all proudly and conscientiously picked up all the scattered recyclables under the scorching heat of the sun.

The activity started with the assignment of areas to be cleaned by each group and followed by the preparations of the needed tools such as one pair of gloves and face mask for each volunteer; broomsticks, sacks, and tongs for the cleanup.

With all the efforts and strategy of each group to clean their assigned precincts, the volunteers also demonstrated creativity. Among these groups was the group where 47-year-old Eustacio Cafejunior of Barangay Nangka belonged to.

“I thought that in order to expedite the collection of the recyclables like paper, PET bottles and other trash, I put together two sacks and tied it so that there’s a portion we can grip on to. Once it’s already half full, I bring it to our post,” he said.

Cafejunior and his group persevered in picking up recyclables in Sta. Elena Elementary School. Their noble effort garnered praise and gratitude from the principal of the said school.

Cafejunior narrated that he proudly shared to the principal the goal of Tzu Chi Foundation because they were first mistaken to be employees of the city government.

“While we were doing rounds, one principal approached us and asked if we were from the city government. I told her that we are here so that the garbage won’t pile up and that we made a way to clean this place. Later on, she became happy and thanked us,” he added.

The small thanks that Cafejunior’s group received gave them great inspiration to continue their taxing task throughout the day.

When headed to Malanday Elementary School, the local volunteers introduced to the public the segregation of recyclable items as they lined up four sacks labelled with tags of recyclable, biodegradable, non-biodegradable and others. They smilingly encouraged each voter entering the precinct to just throw the trash in their hands into the said bin instead of dumping it in the open.


The group of local volunteers who are cleaning the said area were proud to share that their activity has been able to encourage other voters to volunteer on the next clean-up drive of Tzu Chi Foundation. Their duty will be to remove the banners hanging from post to post and clean off the posters of political candidates pasted on the walls.

“There are a number of voters who listed their names and they are really willing to help with the clean-up activity even without pay. I am happy because our group who cleans this area will have more members,” said the 40-year-old Hedelisa Hina of Barangay Malanday, one of the local volunteers whose duty is to clean Malanday Elementary School.

Having been a household name to the residents of Marikina after its committed effort in giving aid to the victims of Typhoon Ondoy, Hina and her groupmates proudly shared that they are now part of the Tzu Chi Foundation as local volunteers.

“We are very glad and proud to share that we are part of Tzu Chi Foundation. Because Tzu Chi is known to Marikeños as being helpful and compassionate, this same quality is also reflected upon us,” she said.

Meanwhile, another group comprised of 18 Tzu Chi volunteers, Tzu Chi Youth and local volunteers from Barangay Tatalon in Quezon City started a clean-up drive in a precinct in the same area.

Tzu Chi Foundation’s Clean Up Drive mainly gave inspiration to Tzu Chi volunteers to keep the value of humility while bending down to pick up trash as well as harbor a compassionate and pure heart for the salvation of Mother Nature. The said activity also gave way for them to encourage other locals to volunteer their efforts.