2013-02-18
AMMM for Mindanao Flood, Philippines - IV

Having arrived at Manila, the capital city of the Philippines on January 27th, the thirdly dispatched team of AMDA met the local counterpart for an initial meeting. This time the team from AMDA HQ included a nurse and 2 coordinators.

On the following day, the team joined by 2 more volunteer staffs from Philippines Okinawan Society departed Manila for the disaster affected Mindanao and started the needs survey in order to select target communities. In Davao, one colonel from the reserve forces of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, 11 social workers and many more volunteers including residents and students also joined the team.

Through the survey and the information gathered on the spot, AMDA team decided to conduct emergency relief activity in Davao city where the residents once hit by the latest typhoon "Pablo" in December last year went through another floods disaster on January 20.

Especially in the riverside communities of Davao River such as Jade Valley Subdivision of Barangay Tigatto, the residents were forced to evacuate houses or climb up on to the roof tops to protect themselves from muddy water. Fortunately all 600 families (1,000 individuals) managed to survive the floods however; people had to rebuild normal life again from a scratch by clearing mud.

To help the people confront the situation, the team prepared relief goods for distribution. On 30th January, AMDA team made house-to-house visit to hand over relief packages (2kg of rice and 1 sheet for bedding) to 500 families.

Through the field survey, the team also learned that the daycare centre of children was seriously destroyed by floods. One of the daycare teachers told us that she lost hope and had no idea where to start.

AMDA decided to support the rehabilitation of the daycare centre through the donation of 30 chairs, 6 tables and necessary stationary such as 60 notebooks, crayons, papers etc. Additionally, the team conducted recreation activities for the children so that they can release their stress by expressing their emotion.

AMDA believes in the importance of securing children's access to education amidst emergency situations, and remains hopeful that this activity provided an initial small step to the community which supports the children's continuous schooling. Philippines Okinawan Society took in charge of this activity and the children enjoyed playing with Japanese typical toys such as "Kendama", "Daruma-otoshi" and "Origami". The whole activity was successfully ended with the supplementary feeding and 125 children enjoyed the highly nutritional rice congee with chicken and eggs.

Here are some comments heard from the people. Daycare teacher: "We appreciate for your support. Now I am hopeful and able to move on for the reopening of daycare centre." Children: "Thank you! Delicious!" Residents who received the relief package: "Wow, this is a brand new sheet! Thank you so much for coming all the way from Japan and make a house visit."

After completing a mission, AMDA team safely returned to Japan, on 1st February.

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