RIM Philippines, in partnership with the Philippine Red Cross, teamed up in gathering volunteers for the NCR Monsoon Flooding Clean-up Drive held at the long stretch of De Vera street in the community of Mariblo, Quezon City.

The move was initiated by a group of BlackBerry Pilipinas fans, at the height of heavy rains, through a BBM group chat where they brainstormed on how they can best help their fellow Filipinos in need. The group sought help from RIM-Philippines team, which immediately took action and partnered with the Philippines Red Cross’ immediate disaster response activities.

With the use of BlackBerry’s technology and its social media platforms, some 112 volunteers were instantly gathered via BlackBerry Pilipinas Facebook and BlackBerryPH Twitter pages announcements and BBM registration, in a short period of time.

On August 12, 2012, in a true ‘bayanihan’ fashion, TeamBlackBerryPH volunteers and RIM Philippines team went straight to the hardest hit area in Metro Manila, armed with hand gloves, brooms, and garbage bags, to help clean-up the muddy and garbage infested residential street due to neck-deep floods brought by the heavy rains that swamped the entire Philippine capital and its neighboring provinces.

“It [the clean-up drive] just shows the spirit of the Filipino community, how we will rise back up again. I’m just feeling great right now,” said Kristian Salvo, RIM Philippines Business Manager.

“The efforts of helping each other is apparent – no one’s rich, no one’s poor everyone’s helping in cleaning up. Nothing is more fulfilling than [helping out] our fellow countrymen,” said one of the #TeamBlackBerryPH volunteers.

“Tiring, fun, and fulfilling. :) Thank you #BlackBerryBayanihan for giving us a chance to help those affected by the floods. Kudos!” tweeted one of the volunteers after the clean-up drive.

“Thank you, @BlackBerryPH, for giving me the chance to help those who had been affected by the monsoon floods. #BlackBerryBayanihan,” tweeted by another volunteer who has been very active in promoting and participating in BlackBerryPH events.

Some interested fans wanted to volunteer as well but were far from the venue or were unavailable to participate on that day so they are hoping there would be more BlackBerryPH initiatives in the future. “Wish I could join, but I’m from Calamba [Laguna, relatively far from Quezon City] and some nearby places here in Laguna were also devastated by floods,” said one of the BlackBerry Pilipinas Facebook fans.