86 Tadem COVID-19 on the sectors and communities most prejudicially affected by the crisis are best understood by looking at what is occurring on the ground and by generating the vivid stories narrated from the grassroots on how they confront and address the social and economic challenges accompanying the pandemic. The Alyansa ng mga Samahan sa Sitio Mendez, Baesa Homeowners Association (ASAMBA), on their own, initiated concrete measures to safeguard their members from the pandemic: monitoring mobility, retrofitting their iron gates, establishing checkpoints, and initiating a community-wide information campaign. To address the food needs of members, ASAMBA leaders utilized a portion of their association’s savings to provide food assistance to members and also secured assistance from partner organizations among social movements and civil society organizations and the academe. Utilizing collective leadership, mass mobilization, and self-regulation principles that were honed from their years of intense struggles during the 1990s for the right to land and housing in urban areas, ASAMBA was able to set up a unified front against the COVID-19 pandemic. The measures they employed and their own organizational resilience, however, were insufficient to control the appearance of the virus in their community. Since Quezon City became a COVID-19 hotspot and the barangay where their community is situated did not have the organizational cohesion and social cooperation that ASAMBA enjoyed, the pandemic eventually reached the community once quarantine restrictions were relaxed. With the prolonged lockdown and the loss of jobs and other income generating activities, ASAMBA eventually faced the same problems as other less organized communities. The response was for families to engage in selling cooked food and other goods from their doorsteps and even online selling. A positive result was that money was being circulated within the community and residents were exchanging tips on acquiring various livelihood skills. The long-delayed food packs and financial assistance from the government finally came and eased some of the members’ difficulties. It was noted, however, that not all residents were included as beneficiaries. ASAMBA is confident that their own social measures would be sufficient to contain the spread of the virus but laments that government has long been remiss in the provision of essential social services like universal health care and mass testing during the COVID-19 pandemic. If anything, the community’s efforts to fight the virus has brought the members closer to each other and surfaced the inherent capacities of an organized grassroots to address their own human needs. Located in a resettlement area on the outskirts of Metro Manila, Maigting na Samahan ng mga Panlipunang Negosyante ng Towerville Inc. or Igting is a women’s social enterprise which produces quality garment and apparel products and provides custom sewing services. The Tagalog term igting or maigting can be translated into