The Fury of Ketsana (Typhoon Ondoy) left many Dead, Missing and Orphaned Children

That fateful Saturday of September 26, 2009 seems to be one of those regular days experienced by many of us except that the PAG-ASA Weather Forecast, a government agency, did  gave a warning to the public of the impending Typhoon Ondoy that will hit Metro-Manila and surrounding areas in Luzon. It was not considered as a strong typhoon hence, people from Metro-Manila and the rest of the areas  otherwise went on to do the usual activities during the weekend.

Many of us underestimated the strength of typhoon Ondoy that made us believe it was just one of those typhoons that will pass us by. Unfortunately, the deluge in the morning of 11:00AM when the steadily heavy rains continued unabashedly that went on for 6 hours has resulted to unexpected inundation in many parts of Metro-Manila that enveloped us with fear. It wrought many areas which were not affected before by flood to submerge, washed-out hundreds of homes, destroyed properties, drown people young and old. It did not select its victims rich and poor people scrambled to safety grounds. Hundreds of lives are lost and injured, damages to innumerable properties and sources of livelihood went up to billions of  pesos and still counting.

One of the communities in Quezon City which was hardest hit by typhoon Ondoy is the Bagong Silangan where many of the beneficiaries of the ERDA and the ABC Foundation lived for several years.

In October 1, 2009, the team of the ERDA Staff  together with three foreign women  volunteers in Europe (2) and Korea (1) alongside with ten (10) Filipina young women from University of Sto. Tomas (UST) and University of the Philippines (UP) as well as the UNICEF led by its country representative Ms. Banessa Tobin and Staff went to Bagong Silangan Public Elementary School which served as the evacuation center of the affected families.

The ERDA Team is composed of 4 groups, the first group conducted a rapid assessment interview from the invitation of  the UNICEF to determine the number of affected children who died, missing and orphan. The result was alarming as of the 30 accounted dead bodies, 18 of them are children and 33 of them are still considered missing and 5 are orphaned.

Each of the families interviewed related their stories of survival in between sobs and tears in their eyes. A mother who survived alongside with a child but lost a husband and three (3) children accounts her heartbreaking story of survival. At the height of the typhoon and the rising of flood waters, her family climbed-up to the roof for safety while she was about to grab something from their house, it suddenly collapsed and saw her members of the family one by one swept away by the strong current of floodwaters.

Losing hope of  saving her family, despite of her ability to swim she resigned to went along the current. And many times while afloat she was being bumped and swayed by so many things  and objects that passed her way such as dog, pig and debris. The entire ordeal is vividly framed in her mind afterwhich she lost her consciousness. When she opened her eyes she was already in the evacuation center.

The second group of the ERDA staff from the ABK & BK REStoRE special projects led the conduct of  psychosocial activities ably assisted by the two European volunteers namely :  Stephanie Harth and Anika Stofel. Their activities were made more interesting with the presence of the E-MO (educational mobile van) which captured the attention of the children during the story telling, reading, and of learning arts and crafts.    

It was past 10AM when the group started to convene the children where we had three (3) sessions each of these sessions are packed with children whose hunger for learning are visibly manifested in each of them. They must have sorely missed their schooling when classes were put to a halt when their school was used as an evacuation center.

It was almost 12 noon but the children remained steadfast with their respective activities. Cans of assorted biscuits from the donation of the ABC Foundation served as a break for them. Apparently, being in the evacuation center even their timely intake of meal is disrupted and at the mercy of what was to be offered to them.

On the other hand the UNICEF Team led by  Ms. Vanessa  J. Tobin, country representative and Mr. Gary Valenciano, an accomplished Filipino artist chosen as its ambassador, together with his daughter, Kiana joined in one of the learning sessions. Mr. Valenciano uplifted the morale of the children by sharing to them his  own story of survival from being affected by  a juvenile diabetes, an illness which  afflicted him since early teens.  His illness has taught him a lot of good lessons which enables him to develop a positive attitude towards life. And this experience he correlates with the children as survivors of the recent calamity.  He encourages them to be strong and to continue their interest in their studies. His personal touch with the children is deeply felt during an almost  hour of encounter with them. Before he left, he made a commitment to hold a concert in the area for the children.

The third group of the ERDA staff is led by Ms. Edlyn Borgonio, psychologist of the BK REStoRE who conducted a debriefing to a number of families who lost  their loved ones, properties at the height of the typhoon. She was assisted by Ms.  Lee Sun - hee, a Korean Volunteer.   

The last group was led by Ms. Marigin B. Olano, an ERDA social worker deployed in the area that manages more than a hundred of beneficiaries and supervises the community-based preschool learning centers. There are 44 families among ERDA’s assisted beneficiaries who were rendered homeless and the preschool learning centers were totally destroyed including its limited school supplies, educational and visual aides. The combined donations of the ABC Foundation, Inc. which is ERDA’s donor that supports its program operations in the area, is among the first who responded to the needs of the community by way of soliciting donations from their various contacts. Packs of basic foods, used clothes, boxes of drinking water especially the ones donated by Mr. Johnny Sy, assorted medicines are distributed. While the UNICEF gave a  big box which contained essential domestic supplies in which the affected families could use for their cooking, sleeping and other  related needs.

It is heartening to see the sweeping collective volunteering efforts among Filipinos, other nationalities who came in to help the victims as well as the outpouring help both in cash and in kind from generous individuals, corporations and or various organizations. But one important painful lesson we have learned as Filipinos is that we are not that prepared to handle a disaster of this magnitude.

The local officials and as Filipino people does not have a mindset ready to face this kind of situation and on how to put an efficient  and effective system of providing relief operations, organizing or identifying evacuation centers. Meantime, the children in the evacuation centers are left in the mercy of the adults and on whatever assistance they are able to access. Moreover, their studies take a backseat as their classrooms served as their temporary shelter.

As of this writing, another strong typhoon has hit the northern part of Luzon and as of date has caused a grave destruction in the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Ilocos, Mountain Provinces of Benguet, Kalinga including Baguio City.