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Working and Waiting - Six Months
After Typhoon Ketsana
HelpAge International
Philippines
March 26, 2010
When typhoon Ketsana struck the Philippines on 26 September 2009, a month's rain fell in just six hours. The flooding left 300 dead and thousands homeless.
Six months later, HelpAge's programme officer, Jamie Pugh, visited Clemencia – one of the worst-hit villages – to see the effect of HelpAge's work with its older residents.
Every home was destroyed.
Clemencia is at the bottom of a hill a few hundred metres from the river bank. Walking through it, it was hard to imagine how it would have looked when typhoon Ketsana struck it six months ago. Yet this tiny village, on the outskirts of Manila, was one of the areas devastated the most.
Ten people from the village were reported dead or are 'still missing'. Virtually every home was destroyed and washed away. Forty of its residents are older people.
HelpAge and partners responded immediately.
In the aftermath, HelpAge and its partner in the Philippines, Coalition of Services of the Elderly (COSE), were able to respond immediately and use its network of older people's groups and community volunteers to identify the older people most in need.
They were provided with medicines, food items, kitchen items and shelter through funds raised from an appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).
"I was so scared" "The water came so quick" Gloria, 71, said. "I had to move from one roof to another in the water using a rope, but I was so scared as there were live electricity wires in the water. I had no choice but to jump in and hope".
She later received a bag of rice. "This rice gave me enough to eat for three months. Without it I would have had to borrow money from lenders to buy food and they charge too much interest.
"My son helped to build me a house with materials given to me. I am lucky I am not alone like other older people," she said.
"I live on a basketball court" Fely, 67, comes from a village not far from Clemencia. Like many older people from neighbouring villages, she is still living in 'temporary' accommodation.
"I live on a basketball court," said Fely as she showed me where she has been sleeping for six months. This shelter, which uses the roof of the court, is still home to 60 families.
Fely lives by herself and finds it hard to leave her space to sell soap which is her only income. Sometimes she makes as little as 100 pesos a week ($2).
"I'll never have a new home" "I can't go far to sell because if the National Housing Department comes and I am not here, they will take me off the list and I'll never have a new home. I hope the government will relocate me soon".
Although the Filipino government plans to relocate these communities, it has not happened yet.
COSE will distribute rice and other items to the older people living in this space. It's not a new home for Fely but it will help as she continues the wait to be relocated.
Every family and older person needs an income.
In the next 12 months, HelpAge and COSE will work with older people's associations to rebuild livelihoods, further improve shelter and install a number of large water purifying machines.
It is planned these will be run by older people and will provide clean drinking water as well as an additional source of income.
But every family and older person I met said they needed some form of income to help them through the future. The non-contributory social pension, just signed by the Filipino government, cannot come soon enough.
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