One year later taken from the same spot.
If the emergency relief operation is daunting in so many ways, so too of course will be the longer term recovery and reconstruction” wrote Mike Woolridge from the BBC on 13 November 2013.
Today, 8 November 2014, one year since Typhoon Haiyan struck. The before and after photos above show the resilience of the people and the land.
I was involved in my first major typhoon in 1972 in Fiji when Hurricane Bebe ripped the heart out of Western Fiji and its outer islands. In 1999 I played a key support role after the Super Typhoon or Cyclone hit the coastal Indian state of Orrisa. As my Red Cross career nears an end, I never expected to be involved in the most power typhoon ever recorded, but here I am having worked for a year with the Philippine Red Cross through the emergency to the long term recovery phase. How has the Red Cross performed?
A year on from Typhoon Haiyan, the Philippines’ deadliest natural disaster, the Red Cross and Red Crescent is making a real difference in the lives of people devastated by the typhoon.
As soon
as the extent of the devastation became clear, the Philippine Red Cross
mobilised more than 8,000 volunteers, as well as rescue trucks and equipment,
and distributed prepositioned food and water supplies. Meanwhile, in one
of the Red Cross’ biggest global relief efforts, National Societies all over
the world sent delegates experienced in emergency response, including
logistics, health, water and sanitation and psychosocial support, while dozens
more launched fundraising appeals.
Since
distributing emergency relief, including shelter and cash, to 1.3 million
people in the first months following the terrifying storm, the Philippine
Red Cross is now implementing a three-year recovery plan, erecting and
repairing homes and giving people back their livelihoods.
Cash grants were provided to fisher folks which they used to buy fishing boats and gears to help them rebuild their livelihoods.
The
IFRC’s Head of Delegation in the Philippines, Marcel Fortier, says: ‘Red Cross
has a lot of experience in complex operations following natural disasters. The
impact of Haiyan was huge, but it has not affected the normal pace of relief
and recovery activities, because we are used to working in such contexts –
that is one of our key strengths.’
A year
later, thanks to the USD 386 million raised by the Red Cross and Red Crescent (as
of 31 August 2014), the Red Cross has built well over 6,000 homes,
distributed cash and roofing material to 13,500 households for home repairs and
distributed cash to more than 29,000 households as part of the livelihood
support programme.
Haiyan
had a huge impact on the Visayan economy, wiping out agriculture, fisheries and
the livestock people rely on for food and backyard trade. Nearly 70 per
cent of livelihood cash grants so far have been used to buy livestock, mostly
pigs and chickens.
Recovery
implementation hasn’t stopped there. An important part of the Haiyan operation
is ensuring that householders and labourers know how to build back safer so
they are better prepared for the next typhoon. As a result Red Cross has
employed more than 1,800 carpenters and masons and set up training workshops
for community volunteers to ensure that simple ‘building back safer’
techniques are being taught and disseminated in the hundreds of communities
where Red Cross is working.
Carpenters receiving on the job training while building Philippine Red Cross houses in Ormoc to ensure that the new houses are typhoon resistant.
Haiyan
also extensively damaged and contaminated water systems, pipes and hand pumps.
Red Cross water and sanitation teams have since repaired or constructed nearly
1,500 water systems and is continuing long-term community awareness
raising of good hygiene practices and disease prevention, with an
emphasis on cleaning up breeding sites for mosquitoes.
Every shelter built by Red Cross has a latrine and a water supply. See photo below.
Closer
community consultation and engagement have also been a feature of the Haiyan
operation.
To
support monitoring and beneficiary selection, Philippine Red Cross has to date
established Barangay (community) Recovery Committees in nearly 240
communities. Members are generally chosen by their peers and must abide
by Red Cross guidelines on selecting beneficiaries for shelter and livelihood
support. Such committees are playing an important part in their community’s
preparedness and response for disasters in a country that experiences scores of
annual floods, landslides and typhoons.
One
factor hampering the pace of recovery is the legacy of entrenched poverty. This
was further exacerbated by Haiyan, which had a significant impact on the
economies of Leyte and Samar in region VIII, the third poorest region in the
Philippines with one of the highest proportion of landless labourers and tenant
farmers.
As the
one year mark of Haiyan approaches, more work is needed to sustain the
recovery effort.
‘Haiyan's
devastating impact was huge but one year on, the recovery effort is well
underway and we are seeing communities bounce back,’ Fortier says.
‘Without
doubt there are still needs on the ground and that's why the Red Cross is
committed to a long-term plan which will see not only houses and livelihoods
restored but communities made stronger so they are more able to withstand the
next super typhoon when it hits.’
Thanks to Kate Marshall of IFRC for permission to use excerpt from her article.
