It was in the wee hours of 17 December 2011 that I witnessed the whirling and whistling winds ravaging part of the ceiling of our family dwelling, even if there did not seem to be that much rain. Not only once nor twice, but several text messages came in from Kaloy forwarding the hotlines of the 4th Infantry Division (4ID), and informing me how colleagues had rescued some families of fellow Balay Mindanaw workers
Dear Friends,
Thirty-one days after Sendong struck, and 29 days after we went full-swing in our organized response to the disaster, we now share with you a summary and consolidation, and our initial plans for a more organized and sustained response.
The first day after the disaster was spent in ensuring that all the members of the Balay Mindanaw Group and their families are safe and secure. We offered our Peace Center to be a home to those who were badly hit by the floods. Then, we started looking at the bigger community. We issued a call for a more organized response to the disaster. Among the very first to respond to the call were the Balay Mindanaw colleagues who were themselves “victims”. Thus, we adopted the slogan: “We refuse to be victims. We choose to be resources.”Read More »Balay Mindanaw Disaster Response: Looking Back and Moving Forward…
Last of a series by Ariel C. Hernandez, [Written late in the evening of January 16 until the wee hours of the morning of January 17, 2012]
Ayi and Belle Hernandez, as well as their kids, were among the victims of Typhoon Sendong as floodwaters submerged their home. They saved nothing but themselves. How they made it out alive, how they coped with being among the thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and the lessons they learned along the way … are in this series of essays by Ayi.
As the world prepares for Christmas and New Year, the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in Northern Mindanao, Philippines were wrecked and inundated… Read More »The Wrath of Sendong
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