Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte on Sunday tapped the city’s human milk bank to donate mother’s milk to infants to nursing mother in evacuation centers affected by the eruption of Taal Volcano in Batangas.
“Our human milk bank at the Quezon City General Hospital will help breastfeeding mothers affected by the Taal Volcano eruption,” she said in response to the provincial government’s call for breastmilk donation.
“This is just a simple gesture of help to our affected countrymen,” Belmonte added.
She said hospital director Dr. Josephine Sabando has already checked the supply of mother’s milk for distribution for Taal Volcano’s victims.
According to Sabando, the human millk bank would initially give 40 bottles (100 ml) of pasteurized human milk to some of the infants in the evacuation centers in Batangas.
If the need arises, she said 200 more milk bottles are available for immediate distribution.
Belmonte earlier deployed the city’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office to provide 360 blankets, 360 sleeping mats, 300 partition tents, and two mobile showers for the evacuees affected by the Taal eruption in Tanauan, Batangas.