IR reaches out to Philippines typhoon victims

PHILIPPINES, Bantayan Island: A year after a super typhoon struck vast areas of the central Philippines killing thousands and devastating the lives of tens of thousands, situation for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan remains dire and thousands need help to take control of their lives.
Over a course of less than 24 hours, the typhoon destroyed social services, public infrastructure, and wreaked havoc on the whole fabric of the society on at least nine (9) of the country’s 17 administrative regions, covering 12,122 villages in 44 provinces, 591 municipalities and 57 cities as the typhoon made its first of six 6 landfalls on Guiuan in Eastern Samar cutting through eastern, central and western Visayas and finally exiting the northern part of Palawan.
An estimated 12.2 million people (2.6 million families) were reported to have been affected by the disaster, with more than 90 percent of those affected in regions VI (Western Visayas), VII (Central Visayas), and VIII (Eastern Visayas).
About 4.4 million people (930,000 families) were displaced, with 400,000 people housed in more than 1,500 evacuation centers. By December 2013, there were 5,982 reported fatalities; more than 80 percent were from the three Leytetowns of Tacloban, Palo, and Tanauan. A further 27,022 people were reported injured, with 1,779 persons still missing.
A total of 1,192,091 houses were reported damaged, of which 593,785 were reported to have incurred more than 50 percent damage.Several international NGOs remain active in the affected areas but the UK-based Islamic Relief (IR) has led the way by providing relief to thousands of families.
Islamic Relief, which has vast operations in Pakistan and several other countries, decided to partner with the UK’s Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) soon after the typhoon struck.Syed Shahnawaz Ali, who heads IR’s mission in Philippines, explained in an exclusive interview with The News here that within 48 hours after the disaster, volunteers of the Islamic Relief were dispatched to the Philippines to assess the situation and make plans to support emergency operations in the country.
IRW has since provided food packets, tents, tarpaulins, shelter kits (tarps, rope, ground sheet, blanket, mosquito nets, cooking utensils, tools and plastic tool box) to over 26,636 households in relief stage, he said.
Syed Shahnawaz Ali said that the IR had since moved from relief to early recovery, providing core shelter (shelter with latrine), water, sanitation and hygiene (wash), livelihoods and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) to over 96,142 Households or 127,926 individuals covering the Municipalities of Santa Fe, Bantayan and Madridejos on Bantayan Island, Daanbantayan in Northern Cebu, Municipalities of Kanangga and Villaba in Leyte Province.
He said the IR Philippines was being supported in its work by the partners including Unicef, Shelter Box, DEC and IR offices from the UK, Germany, USA, Switzerland, Australia, Malaysia, Canada and South Africa.
Ali explained that a year after Yolanda, there was still much support needed by affected communities because of the huge impact of the disaster. “Communities here need to be capacitated on disaster preparedness and emergency response, with the Philippines being a highly disaster-prone country with about 18 typhoons annually affecting the country.”
Ali informed that other than the “annual” disasters impacting the country, there was likewise the 30-years armed conflict between communists’ rebels and the government and the chronic war in southern Philippines, which has affected millions of people, especially those living in the rural areas.“There is also widespread poverty in the country where an estimated 16,000 million (16.6 percent of the population) still live in poverty.”
He said the Islamic Relief has planned to have its presence in the Philippines for a longer term. “In the next three years, IR will develop its programmes on poverty reduction, DRR and Climate change and conflict transformation in southern Philippines.These efforts will be done through partnerships and will require from the various IR offices across the globe and by tapping into the benevolent hearts of individual donors and supporters.