DRR in Mindanao and Negros
by Arthur David Neame
Cagayan de Oro
Arthur Neame
I have friends in Cagayan de Oro, and I had been in touch with them ever since Typhoon Sendong (Washi) struck overnight from December 16 to 17.
I didn’t rush to CdO straight away because sometimes the worst thing to do is to rush in if you don’t have anything to offer other than a pair of hands (there are usually plenty of those available!); so, I decided to stay in Manila unless I was asked to come and help out. Nevertheless I was in constant communication with a couple of groups in CdO, both of which have long been involved with development work and are run by friends. We were in touch on a daily basis; and I was simply offering some ideas and moral support from the comfort of my home, while they were dealing with the situation on the ground, providing relief for the thousands who lost everything and also offering trauma counselling to those who lost family members.
Anyway, first week of January they asked me to come down and help them plan some longer term work to assist with resettling affected communities and to build a program of prevention and risk reduction work that would ensure that the same tragedy does not happen again…so off to CdO I went, offering what I can to help two local NGOs look towards the horizon, and hopefully to a better future.
Things were settling down by the time I arrived in CdO, with many people living in tents, others going back to rebuild something of their wrecked homes and yet others still living in evacuation centers…overall then, I think it unlikely that there were many people without a place to stay, clothes on their back, something to eat, a place to take a shower and fresh water to drink…and my friends were at the heart of that work. That’s not to say, though, that it’s perfect or that there aren’t things that need addressing…and it’s going to take a while yet.
Photo courtesy of Balay Mindanao Foundation, Inc.
Balay Mindanaw, one of those groups I mentioned, quickly employed the slogan “We Refuse to be Victims, We Choose to be Resources” and they have lived up to that. I was working with people whose own houses were reduced to wreckage; whose life-histories were smothered by mud, and for whom everything they have ever worked has been destroyed, swept away, or are still lying buried in the mud….
And I felt so humbled by them…
Take MuCAARD (Muslim Christian Agency for Advocacy, Relief and Development) – the other group I spoke of – they brought in a team from Marawi. Those men and women from Marawi, whom I have known for 15 years, and who have seen one onslaught after another, came to help Cagayan de Oro. They are men and women who, let’s face it, received little from this city during the Erap and Gloria wars, apart from condemnation for being a part of a recalcitrant national minority. Yet, there they were administering the distribution of tools, cleaning kits and school supplies to 1,200 families. Their patience and their understanding of evacuees outshone anything I have seen from the elite of this city or the country at large…they know what people here are going though because they’ve been there too! It is said that Marawi is a city of evacuees (the population increases after each war)! All I can say is God Bless them for their humanity! Would that the rest of the Philippines were so human to them in their hour of need! They live the real Islam…to you people (and you know who you are) I say Salaam!
From MuCAARD also, came a team from Bukidnon, old friends all, offering the same energy and determination…and yet, there are also Barangays from Bukidnon that were affected, some of which were still unreachable by land when they came to the city. Ask them why they’re here and they simply say “because we know we can help….we’ve done this before” MuCAARD reached 1,200 families with tools, cleaning implements, both household and personal hygiene kits and school supplies…
I feel humbled too by the staff of Balay Mindanaw (BM)…they have reached out to new groups like Disaster Aid International (DAI) who provided 100 tents, each one capable of accommodating a large family. You rarely see DAI in the press releases, but never have I seen such an adherence to international standards! Which reminds me….for heaven’s sake guys, it’s really time to decide on some national standards for evacuees which aid providers must all adhere to, whether government agencies, the private sector or NGOs. Standards are required for living space, for water, for food, for health care, and even for things such as social spaces…we need standards for the temporary resettlement of people and for their permanent resettlement. It simply will not do to say “they never had that before!”… The aim should always be to build back better and to start doing so now!
BM have supported more than 5,000 families with food, water and clothes. They mobilized more than 200 volunteers in the space of less than a month!
Significantly too, BM have brought in people from as far as Basilan to provide psychosocial first aid for those who are traumatized, they have even managed to offer haircuts and massages to the worst affected! To me that is a novel and most creative way of helping people to arrive at healing. God bless those beautiful people from Basilan! They came to assist Cagayanons, and may the people of CdO do the same for them next time they need help!
So now I must play my part, and I know I can do nothing but offer my mind – and it feels too feeble! I have to assist people in thinking how we can ensure the rebuilding of lives and communities, so that people live in greater safety than before! We have to ensure that when the rebuilding and resettlement is done that people live better! We must ensure that we reach everyone and we must ensure that we do our utmost to stop this ever happening again. My job is to help people think that through and then help to raise some of the considerable cost that it will entail by writing some convincing proposals to potential funders… I’m smart enough, but I also know I am no genius…at the end of the day it will still be old friends and new that make it happen.
Nevertheless the challenges are
Rebuild. Rehabilitate and Resettle…
In trying to do that we have to aim for the following:
Social solidarity; secure livelihoods; safe environment
That’s the minimum for Resiliency….
It’s both fulfilling and deeply humbling work. And it’s both a privilege and a pleasure to work with good friends who are intent on helping others rebuild their lives, even as many of them also lost much of what they own and nearly lost their lives too….Truly, I am a lucky man. More Power Balay Mindanaw. More Power MuCAARD!
Postcript:
As of today, the international appeal for Typhoon Washi has only realised about about 36%, or S14 million of the $39 required for the proper rehabilitation and recovery of all those affected by the storm in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.
With BM and MuCAARD we developed proposals for rehabilitation work along the riverbanks, from the watersheds of Bukidnon, to the most seriously devastated Barangays of Cagayan de Oro. The overall approach is towards effective, responsive and accountable governance of the Cagayan de Oro river basin.
At the same time we also submitted a proposal to the UN flash appeal for effective community organising and communications between affected populations and aid providers, as we realized that large shifts in populations were under way with local government units hard put to respond to the surge of service deliveries the new arrivals would require.
We are still urgently trying to raise the needed funds for these interventions.
Pagadian
Between times in Cagayan de Oro, I was also requested to assist SPI’s partner in Pagadian, Umma Fi Salaam, with their strategic planning process. This we managed to accomplish in three days, with external inputs from the city social welfare office and the regional DILG. The result is a convincing strategy of inter-faith peace-building, local governance work and disaster risk reduction. UFS is also making arrangements to coordinate their work with DILG trainings and also to assist entitled families in gaining access to the 4Ps conditional cash transfer program of DSWD. Since then, UFS has submitted a proposal to PACAP for peace-building work and we await PACAP’s final response.
Negros
And so on to Negros, following the recent earthquake that killed tens of people in Negros Oriental, I received a call from friends in Negros Occidental who said that they now realized there was a real need to incorporate disaster risk reduction into their community development agenda, and asking me to meet with staff to discuss what can be done. The experience of running out of shaking buildings had quite literally stirred them to action! This means development of a work plan, training for the staff of the NGO and development of DRR course materials for their newly opened community college…and of course raising the funds required to make it happen…we’re going to start a pilot scheme in nine barangays across three municipalities that we think are most at risk either from flooding or due to volcanic activity of Mt. Kanlaon.
My deepest thanks to SPI for genuinely living out the spirituality of stewardship and enabling me to share my time and talents, often at short notice. Ultimately I see every chance of SPI developing new partnerships in Mindanao and Negros and of being able to share her offerings more widely.
Arthur Neame is the DRR Officer of SPI project Building Disaster Risk Reduction Mechanisms in Highly Vulnerable Communities.
See also Balay Mindanao Foundation, Inc. website: www.balaymindanao.org; MuCAARD website: www.mucaard.org.
