Helping Our Own and Beyond

The world is constantly threatened with the inescapable havoc of periodical natural disasters and addressing the potential losses from hazards and recovery problems on the aftermath of these natural mishaps is surely a tough grind.

Nonetheless, distraught victims of calamities and disasters are not alone in getting back on their feet and resiliently coping up with such adversities.

In times of disaster, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through its Disaster Response leadership and coordination among the response cluster, readily mobilize and deliver materials for disaster response and be in the frontline for the delivery of disaster response assistance.

With the Local Government Code of 1991, basic services and programs of national government along disaster operations is devolved to a self-resilient local government. These include programs for evacuees and the conduct of disaster relief operations.

The DSWD-7 however, through its Disaster Response and Assistance Management Unit (DReAM-U) has always been ready to provide immediate assistance to the LGUs as well by capacitating them along disaster mitigation and response before and after the occurrence of a disaster. LGUs are provided with augmentation support from DSWD to further assist in handling emergencies and capacitate them as first respondents during disasters.

“When it comes to disaster, DSWD -7 has equipped us with good knowledge and skills through provision of trainings like Camp Management, Camp Coordination and other related trainings. With these activities I am confident that we are efficient and effective enough to deliver disaster response services to disaster affected families/individuals who are in dire situations that seriously need our swift reponse, Tabogon, Cebu Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO) Officer-In-Charge Roglin Sumayang,” stated.

Even before a disaster strikes, family food packs, other food and non-food items are already prepositioned in provincial warehouses as well as in strategic LGUs to ensure that affected families, even in far-flung areas have access to the most basic needs.

Sumayang has also expressed her gratitude that the Municipality of Tabogon is one of the recipients of the Family Food Packs from DSWD which serves as pre-positioned goods for disasters.

“Through the family food packs we were able to avail of the Food for Work Program which was very useful for the Community-based activity on disaster preparedness and mitigation,” she added.

DSWD Region 7’s logistic facilities have 4 warehouses including the Visayas Disaster Response Center (VDRC) located in Mandaue City, Cebu.

VDRC which was opened in April 2016 is the second Disaster Response Center Hub with Mechanized Production System (MPS) designed to rapidly produce 50,000 family food packs in a day, which could feed up to 250,000 people for three days.

With the advent of this mechanized packing system and monitoring of relief goods, food spoilage is lessened and quicker disaster response for the augmentation of need for food of the disaster affected families is being executed.

DSWD 7 currently has an existing Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with a total of 22 cities and municipalities in the provinces of Bohol, Cebu, and Negros Oriental for the prepositioning of goods and stockpiling.

“I’m glad that currently we have an excellent and proper communication line which is very much helpful in delivering information and basic aid to the disaster affected families. In return, it resulted in a more speedy delivery of disaster assistance to different affected families and individuals,” said Dale Armecin, Administrative Officer V of the Visayas disaster Response Center.

In terms of human resource capacity, DSWD Region 7 has over 200 trained Quick Response Team (QRT) members including Social Welfare and Development (SWAD) Teams and Provincial/Municipal Action Teams who are ready for mobilization anytime.

Moreover, at least 42 staff was trained on psychosocial supports and 20 personnel trained on camp coordination and camp management ready for deployment.

Volunteers for repacking of family food packs from the academe, civic organizations, private companies, non-government organizations, partner national government agencies like the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine Air Force (PAF) and all DSWD Field Office VII staff also had their share in the success of the quick delivery of assistance to affected individuals recovering from the aftermath of disasters.

There were also volunteers registered through the Bayanihang Bayan program that are trained on rapid assessment, relief distribution, camp management, stress debriefing and among other capability building trainings to further enhance the team’s efficiency and effectiveness in providing social protection services to the disaster victims.

“The collaborative effort between the Municipal and Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO) and Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) are very visible resulting to a systematic way of responding to the Tabogonons, Roglin Sumayang further expressed.”

The Department works heavily in the post-disaster and rehabilitation phase and with the resources that equipped the DSWD 7’s Disaster Response Unit. The region has successfully and continually provided Disaster Response Assistance to a comprehensive number of disaster victims throughout the entire year of 2017.

A total of 133,612 families of Central Visayas Region have been served with Php 46,894,631.41 total costs of family food packs and Php 4,888,215.31 total costs of non-food items during the periodical disaster occurrences that happened within the year 2017. A Php 51,782,846.72 total cost of family food packs and non-food items have been adequately distributed to the families affected with all the disasters that have occurred within the year 2017. This also includes the 5,402 family food packs with a total cost of Php 1,853,101.6 served to the displaced families due to armed encounter in the town of Inabanga, Bohol.

Apart from the Disaster Response Assistance served in the Central Visayas Region, DSWD 7 through its VDRC has also actively assisted the needs of disaster affected families in other regions and provinces, such as Region X, CARAGA, ARMM, Iligan City and recently to Naval, Biliran which was whirling from the destruction brought by Tropical Strom Urduja. A total of 333,300 family food packs with a total cost of Php 124,925,989.68 have been served to the above-mentioned provinces and regions during the disaster relief operations for the augmentation of the disaster affected families’ need for food.

In addition, during the recent crisis in Marawi City, DSWD 7’s disaster response and relief operation has actively assisted numbers of Internally Displaced Persons and provided a total cost of Php 101,153,449.68 Family Food Packs.

Consequently, DSWD-7 Regional Director, Ma. Evelyn B. Macapobre, together with two other Regional Directors has recently received a plaque of recognition from the Provincial Government of Lanao Del Sur for the steady support of the region and continuous service to the Internally Displaced Persons of Marawi during the 6-month crisis in the city.

With the strong collaboration of partner local government units, DSWD-7 is looking forward to more LGUs building storage houses in each municipalities for the whole region where family food packs will be prepositioned and stored, ready for disaster response operations any time.

Priceless reactions from affected families tempered by gratitude that they have survived, the knowledge that there is aid to tide them over, and the determination to build back soon through the help of DSWD-7 are only the few things that motivate DSWD-7s disaster response unit to all the more do an extra mile in quickly delivering help towards affected families during disasters.

“I could really see the relief and gladness on their (disaster affected people) faces when basic aid like family food packs and non-food items that they need in order to live a day are quickly provided before them,” Sumayang additionally asserted.

Manual ferrying of family food packs to C130 in Mactan Airbase, Cebu from late in the evening until early in the morning, then reporting to work sleepless afterward is one of the most tedious, challenging yet fulfilling experiences that VDRC Admin Officer – V Armecin can recall. Family food packs ferried to C130 were served to affected individuals of severe flooding in Cagayan on January 2017.

He has also underscored the rewarding feeling to witness the lit faces of the victims after receiving boxes of help and hope with food and non-food items inside it distributed to different LGUs.

“Lipay gyud kaayo sila, ug nindot kaayo sa pamati nga nakahatag ka og kapilay ngadto nila nga nagmagul-anon gumikan sa kadaot sa bagyo nga namugna ngadto sa ilaha ug makita gyud ninyo ang ilang mapasalamton nga mga pahiyom gumikan sa tabang nga atong gi-apod apod ngadto nila,” Armecin further stated.”

Disaster affected families may have been devastated due to the misfortunate disaster that transpired in their places, but the visible reaction of hope on their faces only shows that, knowing that there is a helping hand always ready to extend help and hope to them, survival is never impossible.