MORE than a month since Supertyphoon Rolly, the world’s most powerful storm in 2020, hit the Bicol region, thousands of children and their families still live in makeshift homes, facing hunger and missing out on education as their learning modules were washed out by floodwater.
“Our house was destroyed because we are poor,” said nine-year-old Maria (not her real name), one of thousands of children left homeless in the town of Malinao in Albay when Supertyphoon Rolly (international name: Goni) made landfall.
Maria said the sound of raindrops and roofs being torn made her and her siblings cry. Moreover, seeing her learning modules being washed away by flood broke her heart. “I hope to receive learning materials,” said Maria, who wants to pursue her dream of becoming a policewoman. “I want to help those who are hurt.”
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported on November 11 that more than two million people were affected by Supertyphoon Rolly in the Bicol region, 450,000 of whom are children. The typhoon also left more than 170,000 houses partially damaged or destroyed, and the damage to agriculture has reached P5 billion.
Both parents of Aldrian, 11, were not around when Rolly made landfall in their town in Tiwi, Albay. His mother was giving birth at the time and his father accompanied her in the hospital.
Being the eldest, Aldrian knew he had to be strong for his three other sibling aged 9, 4 and 2, who were left in his care. Since their house is made of light wood materials, he and his siblings moved to the nearby concrete house of their grandmother.
“But we also had to transfer to another house because my grandmother’s house got flooded with sea water,” recalled Aldrian. “When the typhoon passed, we tried to look for things that can still be used.”
Deep scars
ATTY. Alberto Muyot, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children Philippines, said climate-related disasters disrupt children’s learning, destroy homes, educational facilities, health centers, and other infrastructure critical to children’s well-being.
“Disasters leave deep scars on children’s well-being because they are exposed to traumatic events such as losing homes, seeing tremendous damages, and at times, witnessing the loss of lives,” said Muyot.
Save the Children Philippines has launched a series of integrated response activities to support the needs of some 50,000 most vulnerable children and families in the provinces of Camarines Sur, Albay, and Catanduanes.
These include education in emergencies, programs on child protection, health and nutrition, mental health and psychosocial support (MPSS), as well as water, hygiene and sanitation. “Children who were affected by disasters need to go back to learning, to establish normalcy and routine in their lives,” said Muyot.
The child rights organization will also establish a satellite office in Catanduanes to support 1,200 families with unconditional multipurpose cash assistance to help them get back on their feet. The disbursement of cash assistance will be facilitated by the Philippine Postal Corporation.
Save the Children Philippines immediately deployed a humanitarian response team to the typhoon-affected provinces of Camarines Sur, Albay and Catanduanes to conduct rapid assessment. The team also provided immediate assistance to some of the most affected families in the three provinces and is now focusing on longer-term programming in Catanduanes, where Rolly first made landfall and caused the most destruction.
The humanitarian team helped some 2,000 families, including 4,800 children, by distributing life-saving items such as 3,000 plastic sheets for emergency shelter, family hygiene kits, water kits, and 1,000 household kits, as well as 2,000 boxes of face masks and 4,000 bottles of alcohol for Covid-19 protection.
Dr. Amado Parawan, Health and Nutrition Advisor of Save the Children Philippines, also provided support to the health personnel of Tiwi, Albay, in terms of screening, referral and treatment of severely acute malnourished and moderately acute malnourished children.
Extreme weather events such as Supertyphoon Rolly and the compounding impact of the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbate poverty, displacement and inequalities. Children from poor households are also exposed to life-threatening diseases due to the breakdown of health services, and their lack of access to nutritious food and medicines.
Robina, 58, now lives in a makeshift home in Catanduanes, along with her husband and children Adrian, 16, who was diagnosed with learning disability and speech delay, and Isabel, 10, who complains of blurred vision. Her husband is a carpenter while she is raising one hog and two ducks at their backyard as a livelihood.
She said her family moved to an evacuation center before the typhoon since their house is made of light materials. Robina said her husband had to break the window of the evacuation center when floodwaters started to rise and they all swam to the second floor of the barangay office.
“When we finally reached the barangay office, I noticed that my children were shaking but still hadn’t uttered a single word,” said Robina. “I started hugging them and told them that we should pray together for our safety.”
Robina’s eldest son works in Manila but got laid off when the pandemic started. “I haven’t heard from him since last month and I am also worried about him since he mentioned that he barely has any money for rent and food.”
For fear of getting diseases including Covid-19, she said families left the cramped evacuation centers as soon as they could, and built makeshift homes from scavenged materials once the flood subsided.
Robina is worried that Adrian was not brought to the barangay clinic and hospital for check-up since April, because they feared being exposed to the coronavirus.
“The typhoon left us homeless in our own land,” said Robina. “All the money I saved were already used in buying food for our family and some nails to repair our home as we try to recover from the typhoon.”
(About the authors: Estrella Torres is the Head of Media and Communication for Save the Children Philippines. Lei Tapang is Media and Campaigns coordinator and LJ Pasion, Information and Communication coordinator for Save the Children Philippines. They were part of the humanitarian response team deployed in Albay, Camarines Sur and Catanduanes from November 2 to December 4, 2020).
Image credits: Lei Tapang and LJ Pasion