Originally Written: August 19, 2014

By Darwin Masacupan 

This feature story was also published online by Rappler.com in time for World Humanitarian Day 2014  

 

If you asked her if she thought of herself as a humanitarian hero, the shy and unassuming Nay Belen would probably tell you, “Di naman (Not really).” But indeed she is. She is one of the products of the ACCORD model to disaster risk reduction – building the capacity of the most vulnerable so that they themselves can work towards strengthening their resilience. From beneficiary to community volunteer to full-time staff, Nay Belen is an archetype of someone empowered to serve others like her.  

 

Vulnerability

Evelyn Asaldo, fondly called Nay Belen, is a native of Calabanga, Camarines Sur, She has been married to her husband Edwin since 1982; their union has been blessed with 8 children. She helps her husband, a fisherman, by making pawid (nipa shingle). Combined, they make up to PhP 150.00 (around US $3.50) per day. It was a happy but difficult life. They really had to work themselves to the bone just to make ends meet.  

In 2006 came Reming (international name: Durian), one of the strongest typhoons the Philippines has ever experienced. With wind speeds reaching up to a maximum of 320 kph, the storm washed out and totally damaged their house.  

She considers herself fortunate to be chosen as a beneficiary of three successive projects CARE Nederland and Assistance and Cooperation for Community Resilience and Development (ACCORD) in partnership with the Disaster Preparedness Programme of the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (DIPECHO) implemented in the aftermath of Typhoon Reming. But it was ACCORD’s fortune that Nay Belen was willing to be more.  

Nay Belen guiding community members in developing their risk map.

Knowledge

The three projects under DIPECHO focused on strengthening the risk reduction capacities of schools, local authorities, and high-risk communities like her own. This included the conduct of several trainings by ACCORD in their barangay, which seemed to have quenched her thirst.

She has always had a thirst for knowledge. Not satisfied with merely attending trainings, Nay Belen volunteered as a community facilitator. She helped the staff not only in preparing visual aids and other workshop materials but more importantly in encouraging her neighbors and friends to attend.

Seeing that Nay Belen had potential, the staff asked her to undergo further training as a community facilitator – and that training was in front of teachers. She recalls, “I prepared well for my session on evacuation center management, but I still buckled down in front of them.”

It took an ACCORD staff pulling her into a room and telling her that she already knew these things which the teachers still have to learn to steel her nerves. She came back, continued, and aced her first workshop session.  

 

Courage

In 2011, after five years, the ACCORD projects in the area were ending. As one of the trained community facilitators, Nay Belen was absorbed into the structure of the municipality. The new mayor of Calabanga had committed to continue the disaster risk reduction initiatives started by ACCORD. Nay Belen served as a community organizer in the municipal solid waste management program. 

One year later, ACCORD contacted her and offered her a job as full-time staff. Nay Belen recalls, “I could not believe it myself. Why me? Can I do it?” They told her that they wanted her because she had lots of initiative and familiarity with the organization’s model. With the blessing of her family, she accepted and left the province of Camarines Sur for the first time in her life.  

She was first assigned to Isabela province for the Scale Up Build Up Project (SUBU), which aimed to build on and replicate the successes of the earlier projects in partnership with DIPECHO. This was then followed by an emergency response project in Malinao, Aklan for those affected by Typhoon Yolanda in partnership with the United Kingdom’s Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).

She felt pangs of loneliness at times, saying that “I was happy because not everyone is given the chance to serve in other areas, but it was also hard to be away from your family.”  

Nay Belen soldiered on though, and she found capacities she never thought she had. She experienced coordination work. “At first, I was intimidated at having to talk to the mayor and the municipal disaster risk reduction and management officer. But they were very kind and accommodating, so those fears went away.”  

She was also assigned to do validation of beneficiaries’ selection and monitoring of shelter repairs. “I enjoyed it, because I was able to go house to house and meet people like me. To be able to help them was a blessing.” She did a lot of walking under the heat of the sun, riding the habal-habal (motorcycle with an extended seat for an extra passenger) into mountainous areas, and crossing rivers. Volunteers in the area who went with her would exclaim, “Ang bilis mo Nay! (You are too fast).”

 

Gratitude

She gives a lot of credit for what she has achieved to the rights-based approach taught by ACCORD in its trainings. “When it was first discussed with us, I cried. They told us that everyone has the capacity to be part of community development. It doesn’t matter if you did not finish college as long as you are willing and open to new ideas. It really resonated with me,” she shares.

She experienced it first-hand in how the staff treated her. Nay Belen recalls, “They did not treat me differently. They gave me lots of encouragement and always answered my questions when I was not sure of what I was doing. That motivated me to always give my best.”

 

Leadership

At 52 years old, Nay Belen is an example that age doesn’t matter. She did not finish high school but she managed to pass the Alternative Learning System (ALS) test last year, which earns her the equivalent of a high school diploma. She has also been trying to learn working with computers, though she admits that her speed in typing leaves much to be desired.

She has just recently left the organization to handle family-related concerns. But she says that she is willing to return once asked, saying that “ACCORD helped mold me. I want to show them that despite my age, my learnings can still be put to good use – in the service of others. ”

 

View and download a PDF version of this article here.

Originally Written: October 2, 2014

By Sindhy Obias

 

Teaching is undoubtedly hard work. But for teachers in a small school that is flooded for at least three months in a year, the challenges are even more complex.  

Such are the circumstances of the elementary and high school teachers in Barangay Maharlika, one of the river barangays of Talacogon in Agusan del Sur province. Talacogon is part of the Agusan marsh, which serves as the catch basin of the Agusan-Davao plain in Eastern Mindanao. With its geographic location, communities along Agusan River like Barangay Maharlika experience slow-onset and prolonged flooding during the months of December until March.  

Maharlika Elementary School and its adjacent Maharlika High School have both five teachers, covering 204 and 58 elementary and high school students, respectively. 

Travel to schools from the municipality’s Poblacion, around 25 kilometres away, normally takes two hours. Travel is by hired habal-habal (motorcycle) going to a small wharf in Barangay La Flora, and from there, a one hour and 30 minutes boat ride. During flooding season, Agusan River swells and transforms La Flora and other barangays along the river into a huge lake. 

Mrs. Bennel Joy Vistal, the Head Teacher of Maharlika Elementary School said that teachers went through a lot of adjustments when they were assigned in the school. To be away from their family, to fit in the community’s language and culture, and work with insufficient school budget, were some of the struggles they had to deal with at the start.  

Ma’am Joy (seated, first from right) and her co-teachers during the Disaster Preparedness Training for the school teachers in Talacogon.

But the most challenging part of their job, according to Ma’am Joy, comes during the flooding and typhoon season. For one, teachers like her who do not know how to swim are afraid of the water and have to be extra careful. Ma’am Joy recalls that, despite being at the community for almost nine years, her knees would shake after riding a small canoe – the usual mode of transportation available. There was an instance when a boat capsized and a fellow teacher nearly drowned, had it not been for community residents who rescued her in time. 

Annually, for three months, land in the barangay is practically out of sight. Flood water, usually rising up to 20 feet high, would inundate the classrooms and turn the whole school grounds into a huge lake. Typhoon Agaton, which was experienced early this year, brought more rains than the previous years and caused the flood to rise up to 30 feet high. Frequent flooding would leave damages to school buildings, fixtures like chairs and tables, and learning materials.  

Despite these difficulties, the teachers are happy with the strong ties and good relationships they have with the community and their students. Respect, trust, and solidarity are some of the values that the school teachers, students, and parents share as one community. The parents helped construct the floating cottages to house the teachers who are not residents at the barangay but would stay during the flooding season. Those who have houses that are big enough willingly offer to accommodate the children and use their houses as temporary classrooms.  

Conducting the classes in floating houses would require teachers’ creativity, according to Ma’am Joy. They need to keep in mind that a floating house with too many children inside may capsize. This would mean less movement and classroom activities for have to be limited to story-telling and “desk work.” However, there are no desks and chairs, the students would all sit on the floor designated by their teachers.  

It also helped that the schools and the community are part of the DRR Program of CARE Nederland and its partners ACCORD and AADC – the Scale Up, Build Up Project which concluded last year, and the Partners for Resilience Project which is being implemented until next year. Ma’am Joy shared that the lessons they learned from capacity-building activities contributed to their heightened awareness on the risks that they are facing and provided them clear directions in addressing these risks. These learnings are important and timely for them, now that the hazards are becoming more extreme and more frequent. Through the discussions and workshops on integrating disaster risk reduction in their School and Community Improvement Plan, they were able to identify the measures to improve their conditions. The floating cottages for teachers were, in fact, conceived during one of their planning workshops. Floating cottages were made stronger to withstand strong winds during typhoons. They also realized that school investments for development like putting up structures should be well-planned, with the main consideration on the situation of the community. They have built a concrete fence in the past, only to be damaged by frequent flooding and typhoon. They now plan to use bamboos for the fence instead.  

Communicating the risks and influencing the community to deal with the concerns related to disaster risk reduction, ecosystem management and restoration, and climate change adaptation are also some of the roles that the teachers are taking on. Classroom discussions now include lessons on DRR, EMR, and CCA to bring these concepts into the consciousness of the young students.

The schools plan to have mobile boats for the students. They are also thinking to have more “dormitory-type” cottages to house the children who are coming from far-flung areas in the barangay. Planting bamboos with the community is also one of the activities that the schools want to do. 

Although the municipality of Talacogon plans to relocate the residents in the future, the community and the school have to go with the flow of rising waters whenever the Agusan River swells.

 

View and download a PDF version of this article here.  

Originally Written: October 4, 2014

By Darwin Masacupan

 

It was so bright that day, and not just because of the noontime sun directly over our heads. It was another thing entirely: the dreams shared by the people of Barangay. Mag-aso in La Paz, Leyte.  

Mag-aso is an hour and a half drive from Tacloban City proper. Access is through a rough road, which becomes slippery and muddy when it rains. Majority of the population depend on agriculture for their living.  

Elvira Andrade, a livelihood group leader in the barangay, shared, “Before, we really did not worry about feeding our families. We had abundant abaca and coconut trees from which we derive our income. We even had time to play bingo. Yolanda changed all that.” 

Indeed it did. Agina Gabreno, barangay secretary, said that “We thought it was the end of the world. The winds and the rains terrified us. We cannot see our surroundings. Our families and possessions were all drenched. We were cold and hungry.  

Elvira Andrade, Mag-aso livelihood group leader, among the corn plants cultivated by her group.

With most of the abaca and coconut trees destroyed, the community faced a great challenge. But these people were not about to give up. Immediately after the storm, they set upon clearing roads so that supplies can get to them. They also redistributed and rationed what little rice and bananas they gathered and received.  

ACCORD and CARE, with the support of the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) and the Dutch Cooperating Aid Agencies, built on this display of bayanihan (mutual aid) with their shelter assistance. Neighbors helped each other and prioritized rebuilding the houses of the most vulnerable such as the elderly and those with disabilities. They did not only receive shelter repair kits and cash support but also technical assistance in the form of trainings on Build Back Safer techniques. Initial trainings on community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) also broadened their understanding of how socio-economic and structural conditions render them vulnerable to disasters like Yolanda.  

For the livelihood recovery phase, ACCORD and CARE helped the people organize themselves into livelihood groups. The list of income-generating activities they came up with included raising livestock sari-sari stores, and planting crops. Many of them, for the first time in their

lives, picked up their tools and cultivated crops they were not really used to: cassava, gabi, mani, and corn.  

This diversification of livelihoods and crops is part of ACCORD and CARE’s strategy to strengthen community resilience. According to Dolly Odo, treasurer of the livelihood group, “We were encouraged to plant different crops in our backyards and idle lots so that we can have an additional source of food.” By having a wide variety of activities, the community can be self-reliant especially during emergencies.

But the community wanted to go big or go home. Odo shares, “If we only utilized the cash assistance we received in individual activities, we cannot scale up. We want something bigger.” It was then that all 148 of their barangay’s beneficiaries decided to allot PhP 3,500 (around $81) each from the cash grants they received. It was with this amount that they set upon the construction of a cornmill for the barangay. Their neighboring barangays ask, “Why corn? And why a cornmill?” Andrade replied, “It only takes 3 months to harvest corn, and we are able to make rice from it. A cornmill here in our barangays would mean that we, along with other barangays in La Paz, would not have to go to another municipality to have our grains processed.”

But building a cornmill is not easy. The men have had to commit a set amount of time to help build the cornmill, despite also having to earn their livelihoods working the fields in the

area. The women also contribute by cooking the food, clearing the area, and devising budgets to guide project implementation. Andrade proudly shares that they have placed their order for the machinery and expect to open the cornmill this October.

Their planned cornmill is different from other businesses, where profits are divided among the members every month. “The earnings will not go back to us. It will be invested in the bank, and will go into the future purchase of a solar drier, and eventually a rice mill,” she says.

The people of Mag-aso do not have it easy. Life remains hard. Incomes are low. Most of them are tenants, with just a few families owning most of the productive land in the area. This would clearly be a challenge to recovery going forward.

But still, one cannot help but be proud of such strong women, who make things happen. Not content with merely standing behind their men, they have stepped up to the challenge brought by Yolanda. Now working hard from sunrise to sunset on their crops instead of idly chit-chatting, they still seem to appreciate the change in their community.

Andrade is nothing but thankful.

“We never dreamed of such things before. Thank you to everyone who believed in us and made us believe that we can scale up our dreams. “

 

Scaling Up their Dreams

(Lifted from the book “Safe, Resilient Communities: The ACCORD Model”, published by Accord Inc., 2011)

 

In 2007, eight women – mostly mothers – assembled in the ACCORD office that fateful June morning for the first-ever training for community facilitators in Saint Bernard. It was unforgettable. Of the 25 individuals invited, only eight showed up. 

They all looked a bit unsure and quiet after realizing there were only eight of them. Most of those who backed-out had issues regarding honorarium which they claimed was a customary practice of other NGOs but which was not the case for ACCORD. When the project staff decided to push through with the training, despite the majority backing out, the remaining eight stayed throughout the 5-day training. They were all women – a grandmother, two teachers, a church worker, a barangay nutrition volunteer, a daycare worker, a community member, and a college student. Seven were mothers who stuck it out till the last day. Four years later, of the eight, six stayed on and are still active in varying levels. The other two are still around but not as active. Of the six, two stood out to become more than what was expected of them.

Anna was one of them, 46 years old, mother of five and a daycare worker for 20 years. She was one of the more ebullient trainees-CFs. She would giggle every time she mispronounced some words and was so unsure of herself during her first practice-teaching experience. 

Today, Anna can discuss almost all of the sessions of the different training modules of ACCORD. She has gained confidence by using good examples from the community’s experience to clearly explain DRR concepts. She has also helped translate to Bisaya the session plans. Now, her name is synonymous to “DRR expert” in her barangay. 

She’s not all that, she has also gone places. Anna is part of the training team in Saint Bernard who would go out of their way to conduct DRR trainings in the island of Limasawa. Through her and other CFs, Saint Bernard has replicated the ACCORD project within its municipality. The same is true with other municipalities which requested assistance for DRR. 

In June this year, she attended a Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-UNICEF regional training in Bacolod. The training focused on RA 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, climate change adaptation, supervising and managing children affected by disasters. In that conference, she was regarded as a DRR community advocate and a resource person on community-based DRR. Among other daycare workers in the whole province of Southern Leyte and in her community, she was the one asked to help the DSWD in re-echoing the conference on DRR. 

She strongly believes that the ACCORD project needs to expand other barangays and other municipalities because people need help to reduce their vulnerabilities against frequent hazards. She knows of neighbouring municipalities who know nothing of DRR but also want to learn. When she was informed that the project can no longer be extended, she took the challenge of taking the task of replicating and sharing the ACCORD experience. 

She said she has learned so much from her involvement with the project, and the experience has changed her as a person. Because she has gained so much knowledge and experience from the project, she feels it is also her obligation to share this through trainings which she believes can change lives for the better.

Ronnie, mother of two and former barangay nutrition volunteer, was also one of those who stayed. Though known as the silent one, she exuded the strength of a woman one can rely on. She demonstrated how much she is willing to contribute for a cause. She was one of four barangay nutrition volunteers, with all four sharing the P450/month honorarium for the position of nutrition specialist. But she was replaced as a nutrition volunteer in December 2010 by their Barangay Captain allegedly due to political differences. 

During her first practice-teaching, she stood in front like a block of ice-cold and stiff. She could not stop crying during the first training, as she remembered the deadly Guinsaugon landslide which she fears might happen again anytime. 

From then on, Ronnie has learned so much by helping conduct training in different barangays. She said that knowing about the situation has helped her overcome her fears, realizing that the community can do something to reduce its vulnerabilities. 

Today she thinks that being a CF has made her somewhat of a community organizer. She has taken it upon herself to continuously be of service to her kababaryos by explaining and helping them understand what she has learned about DRR. She feels the need for them to understand DRR and so has helped in translating the training modules to Bisaya. 

Ronnie looks at herself as a community educator. She willingly and tirelessly shares everything that she has learned from the project through the conduct of training courses in their municipality, going as far as the municipality of Limasawa. 

Ronnie and Anna, and many more of their kind in the different project areas, are among those who have selflessly devoted time and effort to be part of the journey to change the lives of other equally poor people in vulnerable communities. Ronnie is happy that she can serve her community through DRR; earlier, she thought she had to be a nutrition volunteer to be able to serve. She sums up the idea of what they as CFs have become by saying they have served as ‘tulay’ or bridges of the project to their communities. Now it’s time to help build more bridges so that other communities like Limasawa can become more resilient. 

 

View and download a PDF version of this article here.

(Lifted from the book “Safe, Resilient Communities: The ACCORD Model”, published by ACCORD Inc., 2011) 

 

The sweetest reward is a resilient community. This is how Mayor Evelyn Yu summarized her experience working with CARE and partners. She is the municipal mayor of Calabanga in Camarines Sur, a municipality that is frequently battered by strong typhoons. 

Mayor Yu was first elected for the said position in 1998. Barely a few months into office, Typhoon ‘Loleng’ (Babs), categorised by PAGASA as one of the strongest tropical cyclones, hit the Philippines on October 21-26, 1998. It was also considered as one of the top five typhoons which caused the heaviest damage in Southern and Central Luzon.

Mayor Yu (standing) during the MDRRMC meeting in preparation for the simultaneous flood drill of 5 high-risk barangays.

Before this, like any other local government unit, the municipality of Calabanga did not give much attention to disaster preparedness and mitigation. Their knowledge and experience were limited to the conduct of emergency response during a typhoon’s aftermath. Disaster reduction, mitigation and preparedness were still out of the picture.

When Mayor Yu was re-elected in 2004, four tropical cyclones (Unding, Violeta, Winnie and Yoyong) hit the Luzon area in a span of 18 days from November 16 to December 2. Typhoon Unding gravely devastated the Bicol region, including Calabanga and its poorest barangays along the coastal areas.

This devastating event motivated Mayor Yu to prioritize disaster risk reduction, and started the partnership between CARE and the LGU of Calabanga. The partnership started through a CARE relief project, followed by DRR that built on the initial emergency response.

Mayor Yu is one LGU executive who immediately supported the follow-up DRR projects of CARE. She exhibited genuine interest for disaster preparedness as she sat all throughout the training sessions conducted for municipal officials and staff. She was very different from other officials who were only present during the opening activities. 

She directly headed the development of the municipality’s contingency plan and actively participated in drills. She also joined the community as they planted mangrove seedlings along the banks of San Miguel Bay. She generously provided various kinds of support for the project, including the allocation of funding for all three phases of ACCORD. 

On her third and last term as Mayor of Calabanga, she is confident that their community already has the capacity to handle emergency situations and carry-out measures to reduce disaster impacts. Towards the last stretch of the ACCORD projects, Mayor Yu fully supported the move to mainstreaming DRR and CCA in the local development planning processes in order to sustain what has been achieved in the last seven years. 

Led by Mayor Yu, Calabanga earned the distinction of being the first municipality in Camarines Sur to have developed a municipal contingency plan that is linked to community contingency plans. 

The municipality is expanding and sustaining its successful mangrove reforestation activities in the coastal communities of Cagsao, Sibobo, Sabang, and Punta Tarawal, and has started reforestation of upland areas, realizing the risk reduction and ecosystem services these reforestation activities provide. The mangrove reforestation, especially in Cagsao has earned so much recognition that it has become a learning and tourism destination. It has also opened new partnerships for similar undertakings and has been considered a favourite spot for outreach activities of various colleges and universities in Bicol. The project has also influenced other municipalities surrounding San Miguel Bay to replicate the said mangrove reforestation project.

Recognizing the link between disasters, climate change and environmental degradation, the municipal government has come up with resolutions supporting BDRRMC of Bgy. Sibobo’s opposition to quarrying in the barangay, and opposing the planned magnetite mining in San Miguel Bay. The municipality has also led the establishment of a fish sanctuary in San Miguel Bay. 

The municipal government has consistently supported the capacity building of community facilitators as a means for sustaining DRR in the municipality. Now, community facilitators include the staff of their Sangguniang Bayan members, the municipal administrator, fire marshalls, health officers and staff, among others. They have replicated DRR capacity building of communities and schools not covered by the ACCORD projects. 

Aware of the need to sustain DRR, Mayor Yu and other LGU officials are allocating funds for the replication of the ACCORD experience until all 48 barangays of Calabanga has been covered. Earlier, the municipal government has been incorporating DRR activities in the Executive Legislative Agenda and allocating funds for these activities. In 2011, the municipality embarked on mainstreaming DRR in the Rationalized Planning System. 

As a partner in the Food Facility Project, the municipality also gained experience in incorporating DRR in livelihoods, by applying DRR mainstreaming in project cycle management. The municipality, through its DILG officer, has also included DRR and solid waste management topics in regular orientation programs conducted for newly-elected barangay officials. No one can doubt Calabanga’s achievements in terms of improving the DRR capacities of the communities. In fact, Mayor Yu has been invited in numerous national and international gatherings to share their DRR practice in Calabanga. Other municipalities also expressed their interest in learning from Calabanga’s experience by inviting members of municipal government to discuss DRR programs.

As a result of DRR mainstreaming, the municipality of Calabanga has been awarded the Gawad Kalasag, a recognition given to LGUs who exhibited good practices in DRR. 

But according to Mayor Yu, while the awards make them doubly proud, they are still mere decorations. What they have learned cannot be bought by money. The key to sustained risk reduction activities is the raised awareness of the ordinary people – about preparedness and taking care of the environment. As such they have already been given the tools to help reduce the adverse effects of typhoons, floods, and storm surge that hit the municipality’s coastal barangays and, in more recent years, even the Poblacion barangays. 

“The best accomplishment is to be able to share to others what we have learned; to become instrumental in building more resilient communities in the years to come,” stressed Mayor Yu. That, for her is what mainstreaming is all about: to be able to have DRR into the consciousness of local executives and staff who take it upon themselves to govern for their people.

 

View and download a PDF version of this article here.

(Lifted from the book “Safe, Resilient Communities: The ACCORD Model”, published by ACCORD Inc., 2011) 

 

In Bontoc and other parts of Mountain Province, the spirit of community cooperation still prevails. Community members work together in planting or harvesting in one’s ricefield, moving to another member’s ricefield the next day, until all the ob-obbo members’ ricefields are either planted or harvested. The tradition of ob-obbo is also applied to construction of houses. The Dalican tribe practiced ob-obbo when they constructed their semi-permanent shelters in locations safer from landslides. 

Dalican is a remote barangay of Bontoc, the capital town of Mountain Province. Dalican also refers to the tribe that inhabits Barangay Dalican. Despite being a barangay of the capital town, Dalican is not easily accessible because construction of the road leading to it was left unfinished. After Typhoon Pepeng ravaged the Cordilleras in 2009, the dalican tribe was again confronted with the specter of a massive landslide. The main settlement area of the barangay is located on top of a sliding mountain slope. The lowest portion of the settlement area is very near a ravine and is in grave danger of slope failure. 

Fifty households from landslide-prone areas in Dalican, Bontoc now own new homes (in orange) constructed thru “ob-obbo.”

For several years now, the community, with the help of the Cordillera Disaster Response and Development Services, has a working disaster preparedness plan in place. The plan’s main feature is for the systematic evacuation of women and children from houses in the extremely high-risk locations to safer ground when rainfall reaches an alarming level. The men stay behind to monitor the movement of the slope. 

Despite the plan in place, community members still spend sleepless nights during the typhoons or prolonged heavy rainfall. Thus, the decision to move to a safer location was finally taken after Pepeng. Relocation was a desired but difficult option for the people. Difficult not only because of the financial cost it will entail but also in terms of labour and the trees that need to be felled from their communal forest. 

The Dalican Ato Federation (DAF), a federation of four ato, led the community in the construction of semi-permanent houses in the relocation site. An ato is a socio-cultural and political structure where the tribal elders meet to decide on community matters, such as the declaration of the timing of rituals, and of activities linked to the agricultural cycle. Vicente Manerwap, or Ama Manerwap, as he is fondly called in Dalican, is the tireless leader of DAF and one of the elders in the community. When it comes to his tribe’s welfare, he is relentless and is ever active. 

The Dalican Ato Federation, through Ama Manerwap’s leadership, worked closely with the barangay and took on various responsibilities to ensure that the enormous task of relocation will materialize. DAF made representations in behalf tribe, while the provincial chapter of the Cordillera People’s Alliance in Mountain Province provided technical assistance to address their barangay’s vulnerability to landslides. They also approached the CorDis RDS for assistance. 

When ACCORD Inc., CorDis RDS and CARE Nederland agreed to collaborate in a humanitarian response project, the request of DAF was included under the semi-permanent shelter component of the Philippine Tropical Cyclones 2009 Shelter and Livelihood Recovery Project (PTCSLRP). The 12-month shelter project was realized, though not easily and smoothly, but with important lessons gained. 

The Dalican project had to surmount serious challenges in the course of implementation. More than 200 houses needed to be relocated and the risk assessment conducted with assistance from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau actually identified 70 houses within an imminent danger zone. The PTCSLRP, however, could only finance the construction of 50 houses. 

Through DAF’s mediation, the community has agreed that, in principle, all houses will eventually be relocated. Not one will be left behind. However, relocation will be done by batches. Those who are first to become ready for construction shall be prioritized for the 50 slots already available. All the 70 households listed in the high-risk zone shall be given the right to first access to the timberland of the tribe. Meanwhile, DAF will lobby for the possibility of additional units to be funded by the Project and/or from other sources. 

Prioritizing 50 out of more than 200 households was not an easy task. However, with the people organized and their leadership competent and inspiring, Dalican worked as one in the goal of establishing a safer settlement. 

The community also wanted to take this once in a lifetime opportunity to have a house designed and built in accordance with indigenous architecture practices, for a budget of PhP 80,000 per semi-permanent shelter. With the guidance of the Ato Federation, the communities decided that the financial assistance from the Project will be used mainly for the purchase of GI sheets and other hardware, and materials for lumbering. Lumber, lumbering and construction were contributions by the Project’s direct beneficiaries.

The semi-permanent shelters were designed as wooden structures that used pine lumber. The main structural components of the design are the wooden posts or columns which served as the vertical support; the wooden beams as support  in the ground level; the girders as reinforcement on the second floor level; and the girt on top of the house which then strengthened the roof framing component. These are the horizontal components of the structure that essentially ensure the structural integrity of the construction design of the core shelters. 

The wooden posts are not rigidly fastened to concrete foundations but rest instead on a carefully chosen stone being placed firmly on the ground. In contrast, in lowland and urban areas, the posts are rigidly attached to a concreted foundation and fastened by the use of a steel strap. 

The use of the stone, instead of concrete foundations, is considered the best structural design adapted to earthquake and minor landslide events. Combined with framing from bottom to the top, the shelters are better able to withstand earthquakes. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake of July 1990 proved the integrity of this indigenous structural design. It was observed that the houses that applied indigenous architectural practices were intact. This type of construction design has also proven to be effective in minor landslides because the horizontal support is rigidly framed, making the structure intact even if one post was already hanging due to the slide. 

The shelters can also better withstand tropical cyclones because of the rigid framing that characterizes the structural design. The rigid framing of the beams, girders and girts fastened to the wooden post enable the whole structure to resist wind shear. The topography of the area, and the specific location selected for the construction of the shelters also contribute to the riskproofing of the shelters, according to local people. The people of Dalican claim that no structures have been destroyed by tropical cyclones in their village because of their indigenous architectural practices. 

Gathering the construction materials took a lot of diligence and perseverance amongst community members. The community relied on their traditional practice of obobbo, where the whole community volunteers to help in the various tasks of constructing houses in safer locations. Lumber was hauled by the people on foot from the timberlands which are 2.5 kms. (the nearest) and 4 kms. away (farthest location) to the settlement area. The whole community, not only members of the first 50 household beneficiaries, participated making it look like lumbers were walking their way home as you view them coming down the hill. 

This was how it similarly looked during the deliveries of materials purchased in the city. Coloured Gl sheets were seen slowly creeping their way to the site, about 2.5 kilometers from the road. Roofings and sidings were made of pre-painted Gl sheets. There were days when work was not done with the setting of the sun. After dinner, community members would gather for the community based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation training, or for the regular meetings to check on the progress of implementation.

After the construction of houses, the community members immediately attended to the implementation of small-scale mitigation activities recommended by the geo-hazard assessment conducted by the MGB. 

What made the Dalican experience possible? Key was the presence of an active and cohesive people’s organization, led by a strong and principled leadership, and guided by aspirations of equity and social justice as the foundation for community resilience. Building on indigenous institutions, practices and norms, and combining these with available scientific knowledge, was also an important factor. These are essential features of humanitarian response and disaster risk reduction that applies community-based and rights-based approaches. 

 

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Originally Written: September 13, 2013

 

To mark the annual National Disaster Consciousness Month, CARE Nederland and its strategic partners in the Philippines carried out in July month-long activities in 36 schools located in high-risk villages across the country. In each school, the various activities were capped by earthquake evacuation drills. By the end of July, a total of 6,776 students and 364 teachers have increased their awareness about disasters and have acquired basic emergency preparedness skills such as school contingency planning and conducting evacuation drills.

The 36 schools are participating in two complementary DRR projects being implemented by CARE and partners in the Philippines – the Partners for Resilience (PfR) Project and the Scale Up, Build Up Project (SUBU). PfR is a five-year project being supported by The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. SUBU is an 18=month project by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department’s disaster preparedness programme (DIPECHO). The

The strategic partners are Agri Aqua Development Cooperation (AADC), Assistance and Cooperation for Community Resilience and Development (ACCORD), Cordillera Disaster Response and Development Services (CORDIS RDS) and Corporate Network for Disaster Response (CNDR).

Although the different schools have different risk profiles, a common general strategy was adopted for all schools. The teachers are trained on Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction that incorporates Climate Change Adaptation and Ecosystem Management and Restoration. This allowed them to prepare lesson plans that incorporate DRR in regular school subjects such as science and social science. These lesson plans were subsequently implemented by teachers to raise student awareness on how they can reduce their exposure to risks. School Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Committees (SDRRMCs) were also organized. These SDRRMCs carried our risk assessments and led in the formulation of school contingency plans. The school activities were capped by evacuation drills which served to create increased awareness among students and teachers about the school contingency plan, which includes the school evacuation plan, and to test the effectiveness of the plans.

While a few schools heads needed the intervention (through memoranda) of higher education authorities, most schools heads and teachers gladly welcomed the DRR activities.

“We have limited knowledge about out responsibilities as defined in the new laws about disaster risk reduction and climate change. A department memorandum also requires us to conduct quarterly evacuation drills. We try to comply with the requirements but we do not even know if we are doing them correctly. We are now confident that we are doing the classroom discussions and the evacuation drills correctly,” says Mr. Michael Pareja, a former teacher in Laminga National High School and now the principal of Waloe High School in Loreto, Agusan del Sur.

LAck of DRR capacity of teachers, location of schools in high-risk areas, and limited participation of school authorities at the subnational level were the key challenges encountered in the course of implementing the month-long activities. However, those on the ground, the teachers, are willing to learn towards resiliency. There is a marked increase in appreciation evident in all areas, summarized by Mrs. Rachel Balacdao, a teacher of Ucab Elementary School in Itogon, Benguet, we said,

“From now on, we will make the conduct of classroom discussion and earthquake drills regular, to ensure that children learn about them and are able to share the knowledge with their families.”

 

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Originally Written: April 2, 2013

 

Jalila Anugod, at 19 years old is a widow with a 6-month old baby girl. Her husband died months ago. Jalila lives with her in-laws who helped her support her baby. She was all smiles as she crossed the bridge holding her baby that day. 

Asked why she looked so happy, she timidly answered that the bridge was wonderful (maayo). Few men were working on the bridge that day since it rained hard. The water level of Kapay River has risen and the current has gotten stronger, so the people were allowed to use the bridge while some workers continue to fix the cyclone wire railings. 

Asked how the bridge is useful to her, without hesitation she says that she is able to save on the fare that she pays for the use of the raft. From barangay Dulag where she resides and going to Iligan, Jalila has to shell out about P500 for the fare. This is too much for her who just relies mainly on the support of her parents-in-law to survive.

“I need to go to Iligan for the immunization and regular check-up of my baby girl. There is only one midwife who covers barangay Dulag and two other barangays. Most of the time there is no supply of basic medicines so they have to provide for our own,” confides Jalila. “I also fear riding the raft, and I especially fear for my baby. Riding a raft while carrying your baby is very difficult because you have to balance everything. Much more if the current is strong. Many times, the raft got detached to the rope where it is tied. Because of this and the prohibitive transportation expenses, I often get discouraged to go to the town center. But I also realize the importance of my baby’s immunization and regular check-ups.” 

“In the end, this will also benefit me and my baby.“

With the construction of the bridge, there is no more fear in crossing the river, there is no more hesitation to get that important immunization and regular check-up, and the transportation costs will hopefully be reduced significantly. Says Jalila: “I no longer fear that my baby will fall into the river. My baby will get her immunization and regular check-ups, especially since transportation costs will no longer be as expensive.” 

“The burden of supporting me and my baby that is borne by my parents-in-law would hopefully be reduced, not only in terms of supporting my baby’s needs. The cost of transporting my father-in-law’s agriculture produce would be reduced, thereby affording him more income. In the end, this will also benefit me and my baby,” Jalila says in closing. 

The footbridge was constructed through the Washi emergency response project funded by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid department.

 

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Originally Written: June 18, 2013

From the town proper of Bokod in Benguet, Sitio Cobabeng can be reached after an hour’s drive in a 4×4 pick–up. After passing the Ambuklao Dam, the paved highway will lead to a dirt road marked by deep ruts that ordinary vehicles won’t be able to negotiate. Scars of earlier landslides are evident in many places along the road, all the way to Sitio Cobabeng. 

Moving from one sitio to another in order to cover the whole barangay is a challenge. Barangay Poblacion is one of five Bokod barangays participating in the Partners for Resilience project. The distance and travel time from Cobabeng to Mangagew illustrates the challenges the staff of CorDisRDS have to face regularly to implement disaster risk reduction that incorporates climate change adaptation and ecosystem management and restoration in five barangays in Bokod municipality. In many instances, PfR staff having no service vehicle, have to hike for hours in order to reach these communities, like during days when the roads are not passable even to 4×4 vehicles. 

Sitio Cobabeng is one of eight sitios that comprise Barangay Poblacion. Another sitio of Barangay Poblacion is Sitio Mangagew, which can be reached from Cobabeng after more than an hour‘s drive. During rainy season, even 4×4 pick-ups would not be able to negotiate the deeply rutted dirt road to Mangagew. Being parts of the Poblacion, or the town centre, one is given the impression that the sitios are more accessible. They are not.

Sitio Cobabeng is an unofficial resettlement site. Residents moved to their present location after landslides hit their original settlement during the July 1990 earthquake. In 2009, the livelihood assets of Sitio Cobabeng residents sustained serious damage from four tropical cyclones that hit the country in one month: Ketsana, Parma, Melor and Lupit (local names Ondoy, Pepeng, Quedan and Ramil, respectively). For two weeks, they were also isolated because of numerous landslides that blocked the road to the community.

 

“With better understanding, we are now more confident in the decisions and actions that we take.”

Sitio Cobabeng was one of the locations where the Philippine Tropical Cyclone Emergency Response project (PTC-1) and the Philippine Tropical Cyclones 2009 Shelter and Livelihood Recovery Project (PTC-2) were implemented with support from the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO). In PTC-1, community residents received food-for–work (FFW) assistance. With the food distribution, community members opened and cleared the road of landslide debris, restoring vital access to their community. Community members also decided to redistribute some of the food assistance they received in order to start a community-owned rice retail store.

During PTC-2, Sitio Cobabeng residents were supported in establishing their small–scale mining enterprise. The decision to support the enterprise was taken after a series of discussions on the sustainability, including environmental sustainability, of such enterprise. The enterprise was designed to apply traditional small-scale mining methods. Traditional methods do not use chemicals in processing. Less mechanization is involved. Tunnels are dug instead of the very destructive open–pit mines. The impact on the environment is there much less compared to that of non-traditional mining activities. 

A start–up capital was also provided to enable to community to consolidate purchases of the gold produced so that community members will not have to deal with middlemen and intermediaries. 

Three years after, during a monitoring visit for the PfR, community members proudly relate that they are able to sustain the operations of their enterprise, and that they are enjoying various benefits from it: 

Asked about the single most significant change that they have experienced since the CorDisRDS worked with the community in 2009, Martina Wakit, a woman leader of the people‘s organization said: “In the past, our understanding of various events and phenomena (mga bagay-bagay) are fragmented and limited. We are now able to understand them better and how they are linked to one another. With better understanding, we are now more confident in the decisions and actions that we take.”

 

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Originally Written: January 15, 2013

 

Indigenous peoples living in upland, and difficult-to-reach communities in Boston and Cateel municipalities in Davao Oriental are facing long-term food shortage and hunger if they are not able to plant fast-maturing crops by February at the latest. 

At present, CARE and other organizations, such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development in partnership with the World Food Program, are meeting immediate food needs through food distribution. There is uncertainty, however, as to how long this food distribution will last. In a best-case scenario, these communities will have access to food supplies up to mid-March only. 

The source of livelihood of these indigenous communities, like most of the population Davao Oriental, is growing coconut, oil palm, rubber and falcata trees in smallholder plots, or by working in plantations. All these were destroyed by typhoon Pablo, resulting in the long-term loss of livelihoods. Coconut, oil palm, rubber and falcata trees take time, no less than three years, before becoming productive again. 

Indigenous peoples also plant upland rice (traditional rice variety); and vegetables such as eggplants, string beans, okra and pechay; and root crops such sweet potato and cassava. These are grown mainly for household consumption. These crops were also destroyed by typhoon Pablo. 

Residents of remote and hard-to-reach barangays Aliwagwag, Malibago and Maglahus in Cateel municipality, and Simulao, Caatihan and Cawayanan in Boston municipality, mostly indigenous peoples, are subsisting on food rations. In the face of uncertainty over the long term, they are asking for support so that they are able to acquire seeds so that they can immediately start their livelihood recovery, and avert long-term food shortage. 

According to the local seasonal calendar for agriculture, February is the season for planting vegetables, upland rice, and other crops. If this planting season is missed, the next planting season will be during the third quarter of the year yet. Missing the February 2013 planting season would have serious implications on the well-being of the indigenous communities in Boston and Cateel. 

Support to the livelihood recovery activities of the 9,940 indigenous peoples residing in Aliwagwag, Malibago and Maglahus in Cateel municipality, and Simulao, Caatihan and Cawayanan in Boston municipality will avert long-term food shortage and hunger among these vulnerable populations. Their timely livelihood recovery can be supported by providing them seeds, including seeds of fast-maturing crops (less than three months) such as radish, mustard green, okra and eggplant in order to augment their food sources in the earliest possible time.

 

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