MARCH
Mercy Mission to S. Leyte Report
(March
12, 2006)
 The
situation in the Cristo Rey evacuation center where over
600 mudslide survivors are housed has not improved much
since our last trip. Department of Health psychologists
have said that one month after the tragedy would be a good
time to continue and start a more agressive debriefing program.
Yet almost one month after, when I arrived with my small
8-man team of preachers from Ormoc City, Sogod and Bontoc,
there were no psychiatrists or psychologists or debriefing
going on. No doctors and no more long lines of turcks waiting
to discharge their relief goods. As a matter of fact, the
rice supply that they have is now good only up to Tuesday,
March 14. With 3000 evacuess from 6 villages, they consume
about 70 sacks or 3,500 kgs or rice a week.
There has been some progress at Cristo Rey. We saw a child-friendly
tent put up by World Vision, and on the blackboards I saw
in their weekly schedule that the survivors were now beginning
to govern themselves and set directions for their life through
nightly group meetings. Unfortunately I was not able to
sit in on this since it was an evening activity. But I did
meet with the Vice Mayor and I attended a meeting of the
Undersecretary of the Department of Social Welfare with
the different NGOs involved in St. Bernard's rehabilitation.
(Tell you more about this later).
Aside from this, what we found when we visited some of the
survivors were people who still did not know where their
life was headed and what was going to happen to them next.
Fortunately I had been earlier briefed by the Vice-Mayor
about their relocation and plans to build their homes soon.
We visited the site and told them that it was a nice flat
piece of land right along the main road and only 60 meters
from the seashore. This bit of news sort of lit up their
spirits and brought some smiles on their faces, although
I know it might take at the least another three months before
they are finally able to move there.
 There
are now two types of Evacuees in the town proper of St.
Bernard, namely:
1. The 600+ survivors of the mudslides in Cristo Rey
2. About 2,400 residents of 5 villages that have been declared
danger zones
At Cristo Rey, the child friendly zones are empty and you
will not see children noisily playing games or running around.
People just stay in their rooms or hang around the corridors;
some quietly trying to do something cooking meals, washing
clothes, sewing somethig, etc. All that they have are in
the 18 classrooms that has been home for them for almost
a month.
The other evacuation centers in contrast, is a beehive of
activity. Children running around, playing badminton, hide
and seek, etc. are all over the place. It is like a picnic!
While they had to leave their houses, their families are
intact and during the day the adults get to go home and
look after their things, their livestocks and their fields.
Obviously, every one wants to help the mudslide survivors
more than the other. And here lies the problem. While only
300 houses are needed for bo. Guinsaugon's remaining families,
there are over a thousand houses being offered, and most
of us, want to give these houses only to Guinsaugon's survivors.
I believe that this will be sorted out soon. As was agreed
in the meeting with the DSWD Usec., everyone who wants to
build houses will be allowed to build houses but this should
done for both these evacuee groups. Meantime, the immediate
problem of the impending rice shortage will be tackled by
funds that have been donated to the Mayor's office.
In the meeting among the NGOs we agreed to be flexible in
our plans. Which means that if we have money for 100 houses
and are able to build only 50 because of the above limitations,
that we should look for other needs that we can help out
with. We can provide, for instance, some furnishings, farm
implements and even livestock.
A few days earlier Salvador Cariaga had pledged to supply
materials for 80 beds to evacuees at the Central Elementary
School. Dr. Sam Cariaga also performed some minor operations
at this same evacuation center. MARCH provided funds to
build temporary cooking sheds for the 800 evacuees there
The supply of the materials for the beds and the construction
of the cooking sheds will be implemented by the preachers
from Bontoc and Sogod churches of Christ.
Our next trip to St. Bernard is scheduled for March 20-24.
Due to the need, I am bringing doctors, dentists and psycho-emotional
counselors. As of this date, I still need two (2) doctors,
1 dentist and 2 psychologist-counselors. We will also finalize
plans for the following projects that we are looking at,
namely:
1. Construction of classrooms at the Central Elementary
School that will be used for the rehabilitation of the Guinsaugon
survivors (less than 1 km. from their relocation site);
2. Look for land where we can set up a relocation site;
3. See how we can provide beds, bibles and goats to the
Guinsaugon relocation site in the event there will be no
longer any room for us to build houses.
In the meantime, Gigie is leaving for Pagadian tomorrow
to visit with the Blens and finalize our May 21 medical
mission. Please keep this in your prayers.
Yours in Christ,
Chito
view
photos
|
