Her name is
Anatalia M. Cabrera, 68 years old, singled-female household who was born on
December 1, 1945 in Brgy. Poblacion, Tolosa, Leyte. She is popularly known as
“Mana Tayang” in the locals and has been a resident of Tolosa for most of her
existence. She is the 3rd child amongst 4 children of a farmer, Mr.
Eleuterio and housewife, Mrs. Angela Cabrera.
Growing up to them was not that much easy, Anatalia was not born with a
silver platter or a golden spoon instead came from humble beginnings and had
her fair share with hurdles in life. She came from a poor family, “there are
days that we are broke and something to eat was scarce”, as she recalls.
Anatalia had
troubles in schooling. She admits she was not on top of the class and don’t
have much interest in getting an education which entirely affected by financial
capability of her family.
At the age of
18, her mother got sick and was diagnosed with tuberculosis which needs a
continuous medication for 6 months. It was one of the turning point where they
had to work extra hard to earn for a living. As to his father, he tries to make
both ends meet. By the age of 24 which Anatalia was still on her secondary
education, her mother died. Three years later, her father died because of
beriberi disease which left them as orphans. Anatalia had gone through everyday
struggles to survive since all her siblings have built their own families
thereafter.
At the age of
27, she was forced to work away from Tolosa to look for a better source of
living. She worked in Manila as a residential cook for 3 years and at the same
time sends herself to College. Portion of her salary goes for expenses of
schooling and some became her savings. She was a self supporting student but
was not able to finish College due to financial constraints.
After working
in Manila, she went back to Tolosa to settle. All her savings was spent for the
improvement of the house left by her parents which she happily accomplished the
construction of her latrine and kitchen. She started to put up a small variety
store which sells cooked and raw vegetables. Sometimes she also sells candies
and other goodies outside a primary school. It was her typical activities of
everyday living. On the year 2012, Anatalia joined an organization called
Bayanihan which was composed of 12 members and their main objective was to
generate livelihood for their members through buy and sell of rice grains.
Anatalia is
also a devout and been active in Church activities such as Catechism, in fact
she is part of a Church group called Catechumenate which conducts religious and
values education in some schools.
To date, she is
now an elderly living alone and her neighbors became the major support systems
in times of hardships or needing help like during disasters.
TYPHOON HAIYAN:
Few days prior to the disaster, news
started to emerge regarding the birth of Typhoon Haiyan or locally named as
Typhoon Yolanda. At first, Anatalia did not felt any urgency and threat to the
typhoon because Philippines had been through such a lot though can’t help to
sense a containable mild level of anxiety. Additionally, she recalled, “There
was still a fine weather, mostly sunny and seldom raindrops. No hints the
typhoon can be bad as it was”
On November 6, 2013, news started
to be more serious and persistent in advisory for the forecast strength and
foreseeable devastation that the typhoon can bring. At this point, Anatalia has
thought of the potential grievous effect of the upcoming typhoon.
On November 7, 2013, Anatalia
visited the Church, asked for guidance and protection from the Typhoon Haiyan.
Did confession and prayed the rosary fervently. She also prepared clothes,
foods and other necessary things she might need during any emergency
situations.
On November 8, 2013, at around 1am
in the morning, strong winds start to blow in until 5am and Anatalia had still
prepared to go to Church. By 6am, winds became stronger and zero visibility on
the area. She knew that the worse has now started, thus she was helpless and
all she did was pray. At the height of typhoon, Anatalia was asked to evacuate
her house and went to her distant neighbor’s house. She went out of the house
with a blanket overhead and carrying the emergency bag that she prepared.
Unfortunately, the house also was wrecked by the typhoon. Anatalia was even hit
by a stone on the head from the raging wrath of the typhoon. They had to hide
underneath the sink until the typhoon pass. Afterwards, they transferred to
another house. Anatalia was not able to take breakfast and lunch but was not
also feeling any gist of hunger. By noon, she went to see her house and found
that it was severely destroyed. All she could find was torn parts of her house
and broken bricks. It was a heartbreaking moment for her, she was left with
nothing. Nevertheless, she never loses hopes. She prayed for wisdom that she
may be able to accept the aftermath situation.
She stayed in her distant
relative for a week. At that time, no electricity, no source of communication
and no open stores to buy for foods. They were all dependent to given reliefs
from different organizations for her to survive everyday. Fortunately, there
was assistance provided to her like tarpaulin and construction materials that
helped in building a makeshift room for her to stay. A week after, she started
cleaning her area.
She joined a cash-for-work
program, where they had to clean particular areas of the town. Activities
include sweeping roads and disposing garbage. Her earnings were spent in the
labor cost of making a better room for living. The room built was not enough to
protect her from the cold weather and heavy rains.
By the month of April 2014, the
Red Cross started its shelter project intervention in the Municipality of
Tolosa. She underwent the process of house assessment, interviews, revalidation
and others. Fortunately, she was picked to be the very first core shelter
beneficiary of the shelter project. For her, it is a huge blessing and an
ultimate gift that she couldn’t ask for more. It has far exceeded her
expectations on the help she could get. Provided by Spanish Red Cross who worked with the Philippine Red Cross in building this home.
I remember working with a group of consultants in Africa. They were discussing a dilemma they often found in their capacity building work – they were having to spend extra time helping people deal with personal issues the process was bringing up. On reflection, they decided that this was not actually a distraction, but in fact their core business. They decided to build more time for personal issues into their work.
