Albayanihan!

The boulders that rolled like pebbles during Reming were still there in Daraga, Albay. This was my second time to be in Albay after disastrous Reming in late 2006 . The first was for the turnover of school buildings in the town of Oas.

Just like most of us, I only saw the gravity of the typhoon on television, and if not for the boulders and the dried up lahar, it would be easy to forget this one--like other tragedies that hit our country. It was hard to imagine that beneath the ground that I passed stood houses before; that in the Aguinas University, three-storeys high, dormers were drowned in the flood because they were trapped inside. It was all painted white now, not a trace of gloom nor death. Have been they been forgotten now that it is hardly being talked about two years after the tragedy?

The kids that I met will never forget. They were smiling, sometimes laughing, while the Red Cross volunteers conducted a seminar on survival, a part of the Emergency Education for Disaster Risk Reduction camp. I asked myself, if these were victims of the typhoon? and were they taking this seriously? After all, they are still children.
The activity that followed confirmed that they knew how important preparation for disasters is. They remember everything.

Lou, still hardly in his teens, drew the sky and what appeared to be an ocean, but it was flood that covered homes and lives. He explains " there is a way from telling from the movement of the sky and the waves of the ocean when a typhoon is coming" He spoke not like the child that lost his family in Reming. In a disaster operation, time is everything. Certainly, they can't wait for the storm signal warnings on TV. Experience has taught them the hard way. Flee, evacuate and go to higher places away from the ravaging waters during the storm, and then, and again, head backk home, survive, live and conquer disasters prepared.

How to Donate

Salamat po sa mga Hulog ng Langit!

For inquiries how to donate,
You may donate through ANY Banco de Oro Branch

Account Name : afi-gabay kapamilya
Acct. No: s/a 5630050932
Bank Name: Banco de Oro Mother Ignacia Branch

Contact nos. : 4157875 and 4152272 loc 5409
Telefax: 9242644
Please look for Ms. Menchie Silvestre

These are the account numbers of our public service unit. Pls beware of solicitations or misrepresentations.

Thank you so much!!!!!!!! Will update you about baby Jorey soon.

God bless you.

Bernadette

Saving Jorey

Two-year old Juriel passed away last week. Doctors from Tondo General Hospital said that there was very little they could do to save his young life. It was too late.

Hopefully, it may not be too late for his seven-month old brother Jorey. Because of poverty, Jorey, like Juriel, is fed with 'am' for sustenance. He looked like a normal healthy baby to me, but when our team brought Jorey to the hospital, we were told that he was already suffering from pneumornia and malnutrition... but, we have a better chance at saving his life.

Juriel

We were in Dagatdagatan for Hulog ng Langit to help reunite a daughter who 'lost' her mother in a hospital. We finished our interview and I was already in the car when I saw a baby, shriveled to his bones.
Juriel is two years old, and despite his condition, his mother, not once, even bothered to bring the child to see a doctor! The mother seemed indifferent at the severity of juriel's condition! Worse, Juriel is the fourth of five children. It made no sense to me how she could bear having a fifth child!

Juriel is now in the intensive care unit of the hospital, unconscious and with a very weak heart. Doctors are skeptical that he could make it. Oh, if only for a brief moment in his young life he felt a mother's love!