More than half a million people affected by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines have received aid thanks to money raised though an appeal by Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), the coalition of aid agencies says.
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than half a million people affected by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines have received aid thanks to money raised through an appeal by Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), the coalition of aid agencies said on Thursday.
The DEC said its aid agencies had reached some 590,000 survivors across the areas hit when the typhoon struck on Nov 8 by providing clean water, food, medical care and materials for temporary shelter.
Even though more than £50 million have been donated to DEC charities through its appeal launched on Nov. 12, many survivors are yet to receive aid as four million people have been driven from their homes and many more are grappling to re-build their lives.
“We have been delivering some basic shelter kits with tarpaulines and ropes and stuff, and what we’re finding is that families are sharing these," said Philip Rundell from Plan UK's disaster team at an event with DEC member agencies to update on the situation in the Philippines.
The overwhelming message from survivors has been “we will rise from this” and communities have ben trying to support each other through the crisis, representatives from DEC member agencies said.
“It’s really uplifting to see the community spirit despite all of the trauma. Some people you can really see the stress and the trauma on their faces,” Ruddell added. "They are sharing and working with each other, they are trying to re-build their homes right where they were, even though there is nothing left."
CASH TO REBUILD
Cash grants will have a significant role to play in re-building and supporting communities, said Pete Garratt, disaster response team leader at the British Red Cross, another DEC member agency.
“We are already seeing people beginning to rebuild their homes with whatever they can lay their hands on," said Garrat. “We are going to see a lot of self recovery, particularly in people rebuilding their homes and that’s why I think we’re going to see a big role of cash grant mechanisms."
“Basically giving people money so that they can spend it on what they need most for their particular situation in order to get back to normality,” Garratt added.
“We need to give them skills, we need to give them access to credit and to alternative ways of making a living if their living has been removed from them,” said Oenone Chadburn, head of humanitarian support at aid agency Tearfund.
The Philippine Department of Labour began a 50 million peso ($1.15 million) cash-for-work scheme on Tuesday, hiring 1,240 workers in Leyte province, which was at the centre of the storm's impact, to help clean debris and to build bunkhouses for those left homeless.
“We need to ensure that they have got everything from flood resistant crops to drought resistance crops. There are ways and means that which means we can do development which means that we reduce risk in the long term,” Chadburn added.
The re-building process is likely play a key part in how the Philippines prepares for future typhoons and natural disasters. Typhoon Haiyan was the third significant typhoon to hit the Philippines in just 12 months and it follows a pattern of extreme weather in southeast Asia.
“There are no climate change skeptics in the Philippines, everyone says that this is the new normal, everything is turned upside down,” said Zaid Al Rawni of Islamic Relief Fund.
Apart from the British Red Cross, Plan, Tearfund and Islamic Relief, other members of the DEC are Action Aid, Age International, CAFOD, Care, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision.
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