Contributed feature story:

This pandemic has a heavy toll on our daily lives. Upon waking up, we check our mobile phones for news and all we see in social media are updates about the virus. When you open the TV,news channels are giving you more updates about the crisis.

In the first few months, it was a must to be always on the loop, but as we enter our third month of quarantine, reading and watching the same depressing reports is like a gray cloud dimming everybody’s natural glow. As much as we want to be optimistic, it is not easy to overpower the effect of Covid-19 in our daily lives.

But who would have thought that a simple Facebook group could ease everybody’s tension and lighten everyone’s mood? Atty. Jocelle Batapa had initiated a Bacolod Barter Community and was an instant hit. The young entrepreneurs of Bohol lead by John Paul Lim, Aimee Lim, Dalareich Polot, Joy Angeli Uy, Ian Uy, Vincent Racho, Wynna Aligam, Paolo Ram and many others duplicated the initiative here in Bohol started last May 15 and right now they are managing the 25k members of the group as of today, May 29, 2020.

The community’s goal is simple, barter items for other items, no cash transactions. Everybody can post brand new, never-been-used, or preloved items that they don’t need any more to other things that are currently a necessity. They say that one person’s trash can be another person’s treasure and we couldn’t agree more. With less than 2 weeks from starting, the group had already encouraged a lot of Boholanos to barter.

This is also a very good avenue for people who may not necessarily be rich monetarily but are rich in crops, and livestock, or blessed with skills and professional services to barter these with items that can also be necessary for them. With less than a month of action, the Bohol Barter

Community or BBCo is now the talk of the town. Instead of sharing depressing news, Boholanos are now exchanging barter stories that are slowly lifting that hovering dark cloud.

When you barter, you don’t only gain material things, you also gain a friend or two. Backstories of items can lead people closer in just a day and positivity is slowly spreading around our island.

What’s more, is that the BBCo group is making people more aware of what others are going through at this very difficult time. Bartering is slowly transcending to sharing with compassion.

The best example of this is a post from one of our BBCo members named Gliceria Sarabia Caberte aka Aurelia Maxima. She shared 2 paintings of her daughter Demi Marie S. Caberte who has cerebral palsy up for barter, and she simply just wants to barter it with her daughter’s favorite snacks – a Big Mac burger with McFloat and 3 packs of Oreo.