CARE Philippines: Emergency Relief Philippines | NGO Philippines

Lorna, 51, carefully checks the foldable tables, chairs, writing, and printing supplies, visual materials, a sound system, printer, and a laptop delivered to Ulitan Elementary School, where she is the teacher-in-charge. Some of their pupils and their parents and guardians were in attendance and witnessed the turnover of these supplies, materials, and equipment needed to improve education delivery in their school.

“We are overwhelmed with the support. These will greatly assist us in our teaching and will surely motivate our pupils to continue learning despite what happened”, she shared.

The Ulitan Elementary School in Brgy Ulitan, Ungkaya Pukan in the Basilan province, suffered a devastating loss when combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine military clashed in November last year forced the evacuation of more than 500 households in the community. After the fighting subsided, and it was deemed safe to return to the community, Lorna and her fellow teachers returned to find that multiple gunshots had damaged the school buildings. Desks, chairs, and tables were also turned over and ruined. Gunshots forcefully opened some doors.

Lorna remembered how she stood in her room, scanned the damages, and felt lost on what to do. One hundred fifty-eight (158 enrollees) relied on them to resume their education. Without the necessary supplies and materials, they had to ask for the support of the local government unit, organizations, and private individuals to provide them with desks, tables, and chairs to resume their classes after the school was deemed safe for the pupils to return to.

CARE and NISA Ul Haqq fi Bangsamoro, Inc. consulted with the school administration and the teachers and included their specific needs in the Basilan Emergency Response. On March 4, some of the educational supplies, materials, and equipment they requested were turned over to their school.

Janira, a 71-year-old grandmother, was one among the people who attended the event. She has 3 grandchildren who are learning in the said school. She shared that they were disheartened that they were not able to continue schooling when they fled and stayed at the evacuation center for more than 20 days before they were able to return home.

“I’m glad that they will now have enough chairs and tables so that they can properly write their lessons”, she said. The pupils used to huddle and share the few desks they had in the school.

The Basilan Emergency Response is supported by the Tijori Foundation and is being implemented by CARE Philippines and its partner, NISA Ul Haqq fi Bangsamoro, Inc., in collaboration with the BARMM Ministry of Social Services and Development and Development, GPH-MILF Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) and the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG).

It started drizzling when husband and wife Francisco, 40, and Jean, 33, finished weeding the vegetable plots at their two-hectare family farm up a hill in Brgy. Sto. Nino, Libjo, Dinagat Island. Francisco’s mother, Anastacia, 63, rushed and joined them to take shelter under a tent where their farmhouse used to stand before Typhoon Odette (Rai) flattened it to the ground. The lumber piled beside the tent was the only remaining reminder of the severe damage that the typhoon caused to their house and their farm. All the crops they lost were replaced with bananas, coconuts, corn, rice, cassava, taro, sweet potatoes, and various vegetables.

Jean shared that it took them a long time to regain the farm’s productivity. The flood and mud washed out all their stored seeds and farm tools. They had to build a temporary shelter down at the village to be close to their relatives and to any assistance they could access. It took more than a month before help came because the roads were difficult to pass due to the mud and debris. Within that period, their family relied on the remaining undamaged root crops they gathered from their farm for food.

When the government released financial assistance worth 5,000 pesos (100 USD), they immediately bought what they needed to restart their production.

“We couldn’t continue to wait for more help because our farm was the only source of income and food we had,” shared Jean.

However, everything they needed was sourced outside of the island. The difficulty of transport raised the prices of commodities, and the family could only do so much with the amount they received. They started replanting bananas from the seedlings of mother plants that survived the typhoon. They also made a small garden and grew vegetables for consumption. On September 2022, they harvested 140 kilos of bananas that sold for 35 pesos (70 US cents) per kilo. Even with this income, they knew it would take a considerable amount of money to get the farm back to produce crops for the market.

Then on October 2022, they were invited to a consultation and were selected as participants in the livelihood recovery project implemented by CARE and its local partner, ACCORD. Through the support of the US Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID-BHA), their household received 15,000 pesos (300 USD) as assistance for them to use in their livelihood recovery.

They used the amount to hire farm workers to help them clean and prepare the soil for planting. Francisco bought fertilizer and vegetable seeds and started planting them for consumption and selling in the market. They planted okra, sweet potatoes, string beans, green peppers, snow cabbage (pechay), Malabar spinach (alugbati), and spring onions. These vegetables are cultivated easily. Hence, they were able to harvest and earn 2,000 pesos (40 USD) in the first picking.

Francisco picks okra for their family’s dinner. | M. Norbe

But with the state of their farm slowly returning to what it was before the onslaught, the family was hopeful that they’d be able to recover. They were expecting a massive harvest of sweet potatoes in December with an estimated selling point of 50 pesos (1 USD) per kilo.

“When we have saved enough, we plan to rebuild our farmhouse and return to living and farming here”, said Francisco who shared the difficulty of going uphill to the farm and downhill to their house at the village every day.

This story is part of the “Emergency Assistance to Support Local Recovery Capacity of Families and Communities Affected by Typhoon Odette”, an emergency response project funded by the US Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID-BHA) and jointly implemented by Action Against Hunger Philippines and CARE Philippines and its local partner, ACCORD Incorporated.

Madilyn and Leopoldo show a mixture of Filipino delicacies, muffins and waffles that they sell in Libjo, Dinagat Islands. | M. Norbe

Smoke rose from one of the houses and filled the air with a familiar delicious scent in the village of Plaridel, Libjo, Dinagat Islands. From the kitchen, Madilyn, 32, dipped into hot oil with brown sugar caramel the last batch of turon, a Filipino delicacy made of banana rolled in spring roll wrapper. She was rushing to cook before noon and bring her sweet delicacies to the local pier. It was December, and the port was bustling with activities because of the Christmas season. She, her husband Leopoldo, and their two children took this opportunity to sell Filipino sweet delicacies like turon, caramelized banana and cassava chips, steamed cassava cake, and rice cakes to several passengers and boat crew coming and going.

The trips are usually more than an hour long. These delicacies serve as snacks during the trip or as pasalubong, a homecoming gift brought by travelers to where they are going. Few people know how and have the patience to cook these native treats that Filipinos love to eat. Hence, Madilyn and Leopoldo turned their cooking into a business in the past twelve years.

“It’s a tedious process that takes long hours to be finished, but it also sells quickly,” said Madilyn.

Madilyn cooks turon in their kitchen to be sold at the pier. | M. Norbe

That was why they were relieved that they had resumed their business after their crops were damaged and all their cooking equipment was washed out by Typhoon Odette (Rai) in December 2021.

Leopoldo shared that they were still recovering from the losses that the COVID-19 pandemic caused when the port resumed its operations in May of that year. When the typhoon came, the cassava and bananas they were growing were felled by the strong winds. The flood washed out their cooking pans and steamer. Their kitchen was in complete shambles. Their house’s roof was torn off, and the walls were damaged. The couple shared that they didn’t know how they would start their lives after losing almost everything. On the first few days, they didn’t have anything to eat because the rice they had was soaked wet.

“But we couldn’t give up because we had children to feed, so we scoured for whatever food we could get,” said Madilyn.

Upon seeing that some cassava root crops from their neighbors’ farms survived, the couple’s entrepreneurial instincts kicked in. They asked their neighbors if they could harvest the remaining cassava and pay them only after they sold whatever product they could turn it into. Most farmers would only sell these to traders and didn’t know how to process these into edible products. Madilyn and Leopoldo boiled these and sold them until they earned enough to buy cooking pans and a fabricated steamer for cassava cake. Leopoldo would also gather firewood which saved them money from buying their usual charcoal.

They longed to plant their crops to decrease their expenses in buying from others. However, it would take a huge amount of money to prepare the soil for cropping. Then came the livelihood recovery project facilitated by CARE and ACCORD to their village. They were one of the families selected as participants in this livelihood recovery assistance from the USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs. They immediately decided to use the money to finance their cassava cropping.  

It would take four months before the cassava could be boiled and eaten as an alternative to rice and a year to mature to be processed into cassava cake. While waiting for this, Madilyn and Leopoldo continue their business with the help of their children, who peddle their goods in places with a lot of foot traffic in their free time. They earn at least 200 pesos (4 USD) and at most 500 pesos (9 USD) daily, but they hope to increase their sales when schools start in January. With their sales, they have slowly repaired their house and bought additional cooking equipment like a waffle maker for business.

“It’s not always easy because most of us here are still trying to recover from the effects of the typhoon even after a year. In time, we will all be able to return to our livelihood fully”, added Madilyn.

This story is part of the “Emergency Assistance to Support Local Recovery Capacity of Families and Communities Affected by Typhoon Odette”, an emergency response project funded by the USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and jointly implemented by Action Against Hunger Philippines and CARE Philippines and its partner, ACCORD Incorporated.

Larry rests at the fishing dock after hours of fishing in Libjo, Dinagat Islands, Philippines.

It was near noon when Larry, 51, came back from five hours of fishing. He called on to his fellow fishermen resting at the fishing dock to help him haul his boat up. Larry was born with dwarfism. His short legs and arms made it difficult to carry his boat up when the water was too low for him to dock safely. Despite this, he shared that his life has always been fishing for the past 15 years in his small village of Osmena in Libjo, Dinagat Islands. This was why he couldn’t imagine how it would have been for him and his daughter had he not gone back to fishing after super typhoon Odette (Rai) severely damaged his boat’s hull.

He had been the sole provider for him and his daughter, Ladimar, who was also born with dwarfism. He yearned to go back to sea and fish, but it would take a huge amount of money to fix his boat. He shared that he used to catch an average of 5 kilos of fish, most of which he used to sell to fish vendors. He could provide food on the table and allowance for his daughter’s schooling. But the typhoon left him without means to earn. They relied on relief goods and monetary assistance from the government for months.

“I felt insecure because we didn’t know how long until the assistance stopped,” Larry shared.

CARE Philippines and ACCORD coordinated with the local government unit of Libjo to provide necessary assistance to the most affected households in their municipality. Larry was among those who could resume their disrupted livelihood with financial assistance from the USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). 

Larry paddles his new boat to fish which he bought using the financial assistance from USAID’s BHA. | Photo: J. Poliquit/CARE

He immediately bought a slightly bigger boat worth 10,000 pesos (180 USD) and used the remaining 5,000 (90 USD) to fix and repaint his damaged boat. He uses the bigger boat for fishing and the smaller one only for errands until it is completely sound for fishing. After months of being unable to go to sea, Larry is now back to fishing.

Fishing is seasonal, and Larry shared that typhoon Odette (Rai) taught him a valuable lesson. When it happened, he was left without anything to take care of his family’s needs. These days, he strives to save part of his income in preparation for emergencies.

He shared that he felt nervous when December arrived this year. It brought back the trauma of the devastation that happened a year ago. “But I know what to do now to secure my house, boat, and fishing gear. I also have money saved to ensure that we can survive for days”, he shared.

But Larry and his fellow fisherfolks in Libjo continue to worry about their municipality’s fishing state. The changing climate has dramatically affected their source of livelihood. They had been experiencing lesser and lesser catches because of the unpredictable weather. Fisherfolks must venture far from shore to catch enough for the day.

Photo: Motorized fishing boats docked at a village port in Libjo, Dinagat | M. Norbe

In addition, they heard that the local government is planning to make an ordinance prohibiting fisherfolks from fishing within 50 kilometers of the municipal waters. With only a boat and paddle, Larry will not be able to go fishing that far.

Hence, he is saving little by little for a motorboat which would cost 50,000 pesos (895 USD). It would take time, he shared, but he could not give up on his livelihood until his daughter graduates and hopefully lands a job with sufficient income.

“I will continue to strive harder because it’s the only way I could give my daughter a good life.”

This story is part of the “Emergency Assistance to Support Local Recovery Capacity of Families and Communities Affected by Typhoon Odette”, an emergency response project funded by the US Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID-BHA) and jointly implemented by Action Against Hunger Philippines and CARE Philippines and its local partner, ACCORD Incorporated.

by Shirin Bandari

Photo: Teacher Evangeline Montemayor is a volunteer teacher for slow learners and readers in Tibgao. The school has been provided with a kit, such as paper, printers, and laptops. While teachers like Evangeline were given training and reading materials such as story books and flashcards so that all students in the village can have access to education. 

In the remote village of  Tigbao, Cagdianao, Dinagat Islands, families have been dealing with the direct effects of the pandemic and the super typhoon that hit last December 2021. Children suffered the most- homes, livelihoods, and public infrastructures like schools were severely damaged after the storm. 

The pandemic made it challenging for children to learn their modules without the personal presence of their teachers. When Typhoon Odette destroyed the solitary school in Tigbao, children like Kesha Ferol, 7 already struggled to read. But through the educational materials, school kits,  and training for teachers and learning aids provided by the European Union Humanitarian Aid, CARE, and ACCORD — Kesha and her classmates have learned to read, write and count, making way for a better chance in life. 

Erlyn Ferol teaches her daughter Kesha, 7,  to read in their quaint home in Tibgao, Cagdianao, Dinagat Islands. The ongoing pandemic and last year’s Typhoon Odette have directly impacted education in their region.

Kesha is a slow reader; however, various reading materials have helped her to read better. When at home, Kesha tries to sound out each syllable and then words, using the photos as a guide to proper mouth position.

A Marungko Flip Chart was used during a study session in the CFS. The reading method uses the modern Filipino alphabet and introduces letters based on their sound — making it easier for learners to recognize and remember them.

 “It is important for me to help children learn how to read. I have encouraged Kesha so that she can achieve her goals and ambition in life,” teacher Evangeline says.

“I go to school to learn to read and write,” Kesha says.  

“After one week of attending classes under the new program, Kesha learned to read. When I ask her to read at home, she can already read properly,” says her mother, Erlyn.

The school materials used by the Ferol family and the children of Tibgao were provided by the European Union Humanitarian Aid and ACCORD after Typhoon Odette hit Dinagat shores last December 2021. A student kit consists of art paper, a drawing book, a music writing book, crayons, an eraser, a writing notebook, a composition notebook, a plastic envelope, a pencil, a ruler, and scissors.

The Immediate and Comprehensive Response for Communities Affected by Typhoon Rai (Odette) is funded by the European Union Humanitarian Aid and jointly implemented by CARE Philippines, ACCORD Incorporated, Action Against Hunger Philippines, National Rural Women Coalition (PKKK), and Plan International in Dinagat Islands, Palawan, Southern Leyte, Bohol, Negros Occidental, and Cebu, in the Philippines.