Getting through the lockdown is not easy, especially if we are on our own.
We are most grateful for the health care workers who risk their own life to continue to attend to sick people in their care. 
Apart from health care workers, members of our community have stepped up to help each other through this trying time, when we are faced with the tight restrictions imposed on the movement of people and goods by the lockdown.
Some condo buildings, especially those that have a social messaging app that connects residents in the same condo, share information about food vendors, such as vegetable suppliers. Residents in the same condo then can get their vegetables delivered to their building at the same time once a week, saving them time in lining up in the supermarkets.
Others compile lists of online sellers of essential items. There are numerous groups, ranging from appliances, medical supplies to cooked food.
Many residents started fund raising or donation drive to help healthcare workers get personal protection equipment. There are also donations for other frontliner workers like condo security and admin staff who cannot go home during the lockdown.
Below are just a small samples of what have been done or are being organized to help BGC residents get through the lockdown. It does not include groups that have bigger geographical coverage. 
Vegetable shopping
By coshopping, these group-buying initiatives reduce the need for residents to go out to buy vegetables.
BGC-Helping Benguet Farmer Viber Group : Sue Pasustento of Forbeswood Heights and other residents who volunteer to represent individual buildings in this initiative, coordinate between farmers in Benguet and BGC residents so that a large number of packets of vegetables can be ordered together and delivered on the same day to different locations in BGC.
Condo admin like Forbeswood Heights and Avida condo buildings liaise with vegetable vendors and grocery suppliers to allow residents and sellers to meet safely within their condo’s public area.
Information sharing
This is a viber group set up by Carmela N. Borgers to share vital updates about COVID-19 that is relevant to BGC residents, such as means to get in or out of BGC in emergency. Selling is prohibited, so members are shielded from unimportant information. 
This is a Facebook page created by Anton Sheker of Grand Hampton I that provides a directory of services in BGC. You need to join BGC zone FB group first.
Exercise together online
Some members of our community offer online exercises to help us keep physically fit, now that even walking or jogging outside is not allowed. Annamaria Price, for example, has blogged about her yoga exercises for seniors here.  Lesley Geronimo is another community member who offers online exercises.
Find your condo’s community group
We have put links to Facebook/ Viber groups formed for residents in about a dozen condo buildings in this page. Please join only if you live or own a unit in that particular condo, and observe the posting rules. Most do not welcome posts that are simply soliciting buyers.
More Community Help needed
As the lockdown continues, more help is needed within the community, and we should start thinking about the community beyond our immediate neighborhood. Within Taguig City, and even Barangay Fort Bonifacio, are residents who live in more crammed condition than that in BGC. Many of them cannot work online and have no income.
In addition to being our neighbors in Taguig City, they are likely to be the ones who can repair our air-conditioners, washing machines, maintain our elevators, water pumps, and provide other services that we need to continue our daily life when the lockdown is over.
So if the authorities start distributing relief food packages to residents living in BGC, we may wish to consider asking the authorities to redirect them to those who need them more.
For errors and omission, or If anybody or group mentioned in this article would like his/her name or contact information removed, please email community@thefortcity.com.
