Each year, my EPCIB friends and I engage in an outreach activity that allows us to interact with people belonging to the lower, if at all, non-existent, income bracket of our society. Today, together with my friends Matet Elizaga, Emily Samoy and Elaine Rojas, with the special participation of Louie, Matet’s husband, we spent the morning with some kids and their families at an evacuation center in Tanay, Rizal. These families were displaced when typhoon Milenyo struck the Metro last Sept 28, and with their dwelling places right at the banks of the Pasig River, everything they owned were washed away by the flood waters.
According to the Tanay Municipal’s Office, there were initially 60 families living in the evacuation center right after the typhoon. This number has gone down to 50 families as the local government is trying its best to look for new resettlement places for each family. Unfortunately, with a budget of only P2,000 per family, finding a habitable place to resettle has been quite difficult.
Maintaining order in the center has also proven quite difficult for the Social Worker assigned to monitor these families. For one thing, there was the differences in religion to be considered as a significant number of the evacuees were Muslims and wouldn’t eat pork and had their own cultural observances. With a small budget and several families to feed, food is never enough and the evacuees would take it upon themselves to source food elsewhere.
Second, there were only 2 bathrooms for use of the men and the women, and although on rotation basis where a designated family is tasked to ensure that the toilet is kept clean and tidy, the toilet bowls keep getting destroyed and water keeps getting clogged.
Third, there are 3 families assigned to a “room”, a room being a few square meters of floor space divided by curtains, so there is no privacy. Most of the kids are sick with cough as they sleep on the cold floor of the center with just a cardboard to protect their backs. The center does not have enough mattresses to support each family.
I asked one of the mothers how they cope with the present situation. It is difficult for the kids because before the typhoon hit, most of the children were going to school. Now, the kids were asked to stay away from school temporarily. As to job opportunities for their husbands, the woman claimed that because some of the working documents and Identification Cards were carried by flood waters, the husbands have a hard time looking for a good job.
My friends and I have already come to the conclusion a long time ago that help for people like these can only come from a government program that will provide adequate education for the children and employment for the parents. Our dole-outs of rice, canned food, milk and biscuits can only satisfy for a short period of time, clearly not a long time solution. The only benefit that they derive from our presence is the time that we spend there talking to them, handing out grocery bags, entertaining their kids with parlor games and prizes, a break from an otherwise another sweltering hot day with nothing to look forward to…at least, for now.
According to the Tanay Municipal’s Office, there were initially 60 families living in the evacuation center right after the typhoon. This number has gone down to 50 families as the local government is trying its best to look for new resettlement places for each family. Unfortunately, with a budget of only P2,000 per family, finding a habitable place to resettle has been quite difficult.
Maintaining order in the center has also proven quite difficult for the Social Worker assigned to monitor these families. For one thing, there was the differences in religion to be considered as a significant number of the evacuees were Muslims and wouldn’t eat pork and had their own cultural observances. With a small budget and several families to feed, food is never enough and the evacuees would take it upon themselves to source food elsewhere.
Second, there were only 2 bathrooms for use of the men and the women, and although on rotation basis where a designated family is tasked to ensure that the toilet is kept clean and tidy, the toilet bowls keep getting destroyed and water keeps getting clogged.
Third, there are 3 families assigned to a “room”, a room being a few square meters of floor space divided by curtains, so there is no privacy. Most of the kids are sick with cough as they sleep on the cold floor of the center with just a cardboard to protect their backs. The center does not have enough mattresses to support each family.
I asked one of the mothers how they cope with the present situation. It is difficult for the kids because before the typhoon hit, most of the children were going to school. Now, the kids were asked to stay away from school temporarily. As to job opportunities for their husbands, the woman claimed that because some of the working documents and Identification Cards were carried by flood waters, the husbands have a hard time looking for a good job.
My friends and I have already come to the conclusion a long time ago that help for people like these can only come from a government program that will provide adequate education for the children and employment for the parents. Our dole-outs of rice, canned food, milk and biscuits can only satisfy for a short period of time, clearly not a long time solution. The only benefit that they derive from our presence is the time that we spend there talking to them, handing out grocery bags, entertaining their kids with parlor games and prizes, a break from an otherwise another sweltering hot day with nothing to look forward to…at least, for now.