Work gives hope to villagers displaced by calamities

06 January 2007

LEGAZPI CITY—SOME VILLAGERS displaced by Supertyphoon “Reming” in Albay found temporary work building latrines in 19 evacuation shelters in Albay.

At least 84 men and women were able to build 124 hand-washing facilities, 248 toilets, and 49 single-unit bathing cubicles in a ‘cash-for-work’ program implemented by Oxfam, an international humanitarian organization, during the holiday season.

The workers were selected from among the evacuees in the shelters, where the sanitary toilets were built, and were paid P150 to P200 each everyday, depending on their skills and kind of work, said Mel Capistrano, program manager of Oxfam’s Emergency Response in Bicol.

Joselito Millare, 32, father of two and whose family was temporarily housed at the upper Malabog evacuation center in Daraga, Albay was one of those hired by Oxfam for the construction of double-pit latrines in the evacuation site.

“We were given employment and we ourselves were able to benefit from the work we did,” said Millare.

He added he was able to buy noodles and a half-kilogram of meat last Christmas while saving P500 for his family’s house transfer.

Oxfam earlier distributed P1,000 cash grants and non-food items in Barangay Bungalon in Daraga town and Barangays Gapo, Tagaytay, Baligang, Cabangan, and Salugan in Camalig—all in Albay—covering 2,100 families.

In Malilipot, Sto. Domingo, and Bacacay—all in Albay—more than 3,000 families benefited from the cash-for-work program of World Vision, an international Christian relief organization, which was assisted by a $200,000-funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The hired workers, who rebuilt destroyed houses and cleared clogged roads, each received P100 and 5 kg of rice everyday.

Evacuees staying in public schools would have to decamp on Sunday as classes were to resume on Jan. 8 as ordered by the Department of Education here. Tent cities would be built in relocation areas in Albay to temporarily provide shelter for the displaced villagers, said Evelyn Jerusalem, public information officer of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Bicol.

Nongovernment organizations and local government agencies are now involved in the construction of houses for the displaced villagers and providing alternative livelihood for those who have lost their farms to the mudflow, Jerusalem said.

She said the local government units are now submitting their rehabilitation plans, which would be consolidated and submitted to the DSWD central office next week.

A total of 6,980 families, or 33,789 persons, from 128 villages housed in 126 shelters in Albay still rely on government and nongovernment relief assistance for more than a month now after Reming ravaged Bicol, said the provincial disaster coordinating council. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon