After taking its Lingap sa Mamamayan outreach program to Africa, the Iglesia ni Cristo is set to stage the latest edition of its global anti-poverty initiative back home with a Lingap sa Mamamayan at the Quirino Grandstand on July 15.
The activity is expected to draw in over 150,000 people in what INC General Auditor Glicerio Santos Jr. said in a statement was “part of the Church’s resolve to tap its resources and do something concrete to combat poverty here and around the world.”
Santos added while the INC had conducted the Lingap sa Mamamayan in foreign lands, the leadership of the homegrown church—established in the Philippines in 1914—recognized that “charity begins at home.”
“Poverty is indeed a worldwide problem, but we are aware that it has and continues to be a serious issue in our own country. So while we are spreading our reach and living up to our responsibilities as global citizens, we have not forgotten that we are, first and foremost, Filipinos,” Santos said in his statement.
The Lingap sa Mamamayan program has been one of INC’s significant programs under the leadership of Executive Minister Eduardo Manalo, at the helm of the church since 2009.
For the big Lingap acitivity on July 15, INC has readied ultra-modern laboratory and radiology equipment ready to perform complete blood count, blood sugar determination, blood typing, pregnancy test and urinalysis as well as ultrasound, 2D echo, and 12 liter ECG.
All these services are to be given for free.
Santos said: “We will also offer free consultations in internal medicine, dermatology, pediatrics, ob-gyne and surgery.
“Two mini hospitals with two minor operating rooms will be set up at the venue. Canes, wheelchairs and reading glasses would be given at no cost to Lingap attendees on top of maintenance medicines for hypertension, diabetes and cholesterol, antibiotics, medicines for children and multivitamins for people of all ages.”
Lingap sa Mamamayan activities have been organized and staged in the United States, Canada, Northern and Southern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and key areas in the Middle East including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
The INC recently finished a Lingap sa Mamamayan swing in Africa, distributed food parcels in Kibera and Kawangware in Nairobi, Kenya last month.
It also held similar activity in Blantyre and Samama Village Mangochi in Malawi in the same period. Church officials said an estimated 33,000 people received assistance.
Santos had said the success of the INC’s Worldwide Walk Against Poverty last May allowed it to hold even more Lingap sa Mamamayan activities as a result of the funds the activity raised.
The Worldwide Walk drew over one million people in Manila and was conducted simultaneously in 358 sites across 44 different countries, the press statement said.
The landmark INC activity is credited for breaking three Guinness world records: The largest charity walk in a single venue, with 238,171 INC members taking part in the event along Roxas Boulevard in Manila; the longest human sentence, with 23,235 participants; and the largest picture mosaic, formed by 9,000 INC members.
