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| The pandan leaves at their back used to be their refuge . |
When we responded for typhoon Ketsana three years ago, I met a child having tantrums in one of the evacuation centers. The mother said she that the child has Down syndrome and was uncomfortable to live in one of the overcrowded and noisy classrooms as they don’t have other place to live since their house was still submerged in flood waters.
Last year typhoon Megi hit Philippines; I was deployed in one of hardest hit province where I met the most resilient children on earth. The indigenous children with their families found who found refuge in the shrubs of pandan leaves for eight hours of strong winds and heavy rain. This year when twin typhoon Nesat and Nalgae hit the Philippines, I was again deployed to capture the stories of the survivors, especially the children affected by the devastation.
In one of the hardest hit villages, seeing a very young child placed in a white-colored pail floating in the flood waters while her mother was falling in line to receive relief goods broke my heart. The innocent child looked so cheerful as if she was in a floater in a pool.
The child inside the pail is 9-month-old Iris. She couldn’t help her excitement when she finally got to drink clean water to quench her thirst, this was obvious by how she drank the water from the orange plastic dipper used by her mother right after they arrived home bringing the relief packs good enough for two weeks. The packs included a tub of biscuits, canned goods and two bottles of six liters distilled water. For them the bottled water is the most important and priceless gift they received.
Iris is not the only child of 36-year-old Aira. When I visited their house, I was welcomed by two children at their improvised gate made of used galvanized iron. They were sitting in the improvised floater made from an old ice-box. The 2-year-old twin daughters looked so sickly compared to their 9-month-old sister Iris. The twins have been sick for a week after the typhoon hit their village. Twin sister Aivy had been suffering from fever while Irene had been vomiting. Mother Aira 36, believes that this is because of the contaminated water they’ve been drinking. “For the past days, there is no water coming out from the faucets. And the local systems are all submerged in flood waters,” Aira shares.
According to the villagers, for two weeks they do not have access to clean water and cannot even purchase drinking water anymore. Some even get drinking water from the swimming pool of their neighbor and the water from the rain.
The family cannot do so much but to just depend on the relief goods given by kind-hearted people. Aira’s husband works as a bicycle driver in their village. “My husband temporarily stopped from driving. No one is riding on the bicycle because of the above the knee water,” Aira shares. This is also the case of their neighbor who had found refuge at the truck owned by their neighbor. Liberty’s husband cannot also work since the water is still above the knee. The family lives at the garage of their neighbor, inside the blue truck. They are three families with eight children, in the truck that serves as their bedroom, kitchen and living room. It is their home until the water in their own home will subside.
While waiting for that to happen, two of their children Kelvin, 10, and Kenken, 8, are enjoying the flood of waters just like Iris. Kelvin and Kenken have been practicing to swim and float in the flood of water. They never mind how dirty the water is that can cause harm to their health.
But despite the plight of these families, they still feel blessed and hopeful that they survived and see people who have been helping them. “The goods provided are very helpful. We do not have to worry anymore on what food to prepare. We can now focus to find ways how we can get back our lives to normal,” says Liberty.
These families are still uncertain when their lives gets back to normal and when the floods of water will subside as the rain keeps falling especially now that there is another typhoon approaching the Philippine vicinity. Capturing stories related to devastation is depressing especially if you get to hear stories of survivors on how they survived and are coping up from the devastation caused by typhoons. But the opportunity of hearing hopeful families and helping them is worthwhile, it brings joy to my heart, especially if you see people waving their hands and hearing them saying, "Salamat po" after receiving the relief packs.
But If I happen to see these devastations again next year, It will be too much to see and too much for Filipinos to experience, especially the innocent children who thought that swimming in the pool of flood waters, floating inside a floater and finding refuge at the pandan leaves are fun to experience.
I hope we will be spared by the devastations next year and to the years to come. And it will just happen if everyone, including me will do his/her share to mitigate these devastations; by being prepared, help and support like-minded groups/organizations that advocates for disaster risk reduction. There are actually a lot of groups who are working hard to reduce disasters; And World Vision is one of those organizations who advocates for the cause and involves children by making them our partners for a child-focused disaster risk reduction.
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| Arnel Alipa, a World Vision sponsored child and DRR youth advocate. |
http://worldvision.org.ph/advocacy/world-vision-sponsored-child-speak-un-general-assembly-child-focused-drr Just yesterday, Arnel talked about DRR in a child’s perspective, during the commemoration of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction and ASEAN Day for Disaster Management.
I am advocating and doing efforts for DRR. I hope to hear your support and be with us so that no one will experience the devastation these children experienced. Let us step up for Disaster Risk Reduction!
As of this writing World Vision was able to help more than 8,000 families in four provinces who are affected by Typhoon Nesat and Nalgae that hit Philippines last month. World Vision Philippines aims to respond to 32,800 affected families.
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