Local officials of Sta. Josefa town in the Province of Agusan del Sur expressed gratefulness to Balay Mindanaw for assisting their local government unit in becoming… Read More »Sta. Josefa LGU thanks Balay Mindanaw for helping make them disaster-resilient
by Angie Escobilla Self-proclaimed “illegal settlers” from Purok 6, Barangay Gusa lost their homes on January 16, 2015 following a legal battle. Some of their houses… Read More »Barangay Gusa: Strength in Unity
Perhaps if you visited the barangay (village) of San Juan in Ormoc City early morning of Christmas in the year 2013, you would see the soft sunrise touching the tops of the trees laid bare by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) that devastated many areas of the Visayas region earlier that November. The rural barangay of San Juan is found just at the border of Ormoc, just before its boundary with the municipality of Merida.
On your visit, you might turn left from the Ormoc City-Merida Road, leaving behind the hard concrete road onto rough, dusty streets with rice fields on either side. The scenery is now and used to be a lush green. Back then, after Yolanda, it was predominantly brown, most of the foliage blown away by the typhoon. Beyond the rice fields, you would come across a bridge from which you would see a multitude of damaged houses. Some of the lucky ones had a G.I. sheet or two ripped off of their roofs. Those that weren’t as fortunate were completely destroyed altogether.
Perhaps in the midst of the rubble lit by the early morning sunrise you would find an interesting sight. You might find Girlie Arcillas pushing her partner, Danny Ciesneros, up the streets on a wheelchair. Once they reach level ground, they exchange places. Girlie would carefully help Danny up from the wheelchair. Danny would then push the wheelchair, with Girlie sitting on it for support, exercising his legs, both of which had been broken by a car accident the year before. This would become the pair’s routine for months. Sometimes they would go on like this for three hours, depending on Danny’s strength at the time.Read More »Danny Ciesneros: on his feet again
“I’ve been a farmer since I was a child, my parents used to accompany me when they work to the farm. I thought the planted coconut trees and the farm that we used to till will guarantee our future…but now, nothing is left” narrates Felicitas Casil, 65 years old from Ban-ao, Baganga, Davao Oriental.
A survivor of the Typhoon Pablo in December 4, 2013, she felt very sad seeing that all houses and coconut trees were destroyed by the Typhoon. But now she can laugh recounting how the coconut trees were brought to the ground “It seems they had been been cut down by Typhoon Pablo with his chainsaw.”Read More »BLESSING IN DISGUISE
A survivor from Typhoon Storm Pablo in Dec 4, 2012, Aurel Ignacio, 30 yrs. old, joined the “Hollowblock Making Production” in July this year, 7 months after the typhoon devastated their homes, livelihood and the whole of Bagangga and neighboring towns.
“The training has really helped me a lot in terms of starting our life again, specifically in our source of livelihood” he said happily after making quite a number of good hollowblocks and get paid for what he produced.Read More »THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR HARD WORK