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Filipino fisher-folk regain the livelihoods they lost to Haiyan

Wednesday, 5 November 2014 17:12 GMT

Edgar Suganob Jr. (far left with hat) and other fishermen receive a new boat engine form European Ambassador Guy Ledoux. Photo credit: EU/ECHO

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* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

A year after it hit the Philippines, Typhoon Haiyan – locally known as Yolanda - still leaves the most vivid memories for those who survived it. For good reason: even in a country habituated to cyclones, this was the strongest storm to ever make landfall in the country. 

Edgar Suganob Jr., for example, a 23 year-old fisherman from Abuyog town in the south-eastern coast of Leyte Province, says he will never forget what he lived through back then. “I walked one whole day and one whole night right after the typhoon hit as I needed to reach Tacloban and look for my missing sister who I knew was trapped there at the height of the typhoon, he recalls. The whole area was completely ravaged, there were debris and dead bodies everywhere...”. He later found his sister alive, but she was so traumatised by the experience that she eventually migrated to Cebu City, on another island.

Edgar, his wife and their two small children aged three and five were lucky to survive the disaster, unlike the 7 000 Filipinos who perished in the Haiyan mayhem. Yet, having lost both their house as well as their fishing boat and gears – they had nothing left to survive. Edgar remembers how he waited in long queues at the distribution centers just to have at least one meal a day for his family. When food rations started to slow down, he joined his neighbours in salvaging fallen coconut trees in order to sell the timber. But he knew that this was just a temporary way to make ends meet. Without a peso in his pocket, he was totally helpless when it came to actually rebuilding his lost livelihood.

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