A CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: Greatest Christmas gift for quake victims Quake evacuation camps need preachers

BARANGAY MAGTANGTANG, Danao, Bohol, Philippines – "It would have been timely that simultaneous with relief goods giving, someone gave us the Word of God." Speaking in Boholano, Teodorico D. Auxtero, deplored the seemingly regression of values inside evacuation camps after the 7.2 quake last October 15. The greatest gift for quake victims this Christmas may just be the Word of God and a relationship with God which is the very reason why the Messiah was born.

Barangay Magtangtang is a quiet interior barrio in Danao. From Tagbilaran City, it takes at least two hours to reach Magtangtang in a private vehicle. In public transport, it could take half a day as roads are rough and transport is scarce. Danao's agricultural lands are planted with rice and at the time of the quake, rice had been ripe for harvest. Yet while the quake did not affect rice lands, farmers did not go back to reap ripened harvests apparently still traumatized with aftershocks.

Auxtero, who is fondly called "Doki" my constituents seemed to have a different explanation. More than health nutrition is spiritual nutrition. A councilor of the municipality of Danao and the municipal nutrition action officer, Auxtero said that after quake victims received truckloads of relief goods including rice, sardines and noodles they had become dependent on the dole outs. People tended to stay in the evacuation camps rather than go back to their homes and work in the ricefields apparently because staying in the evacuation camps entitled them to avail of relief goods. He said that some donors gave six kilos of rice and some three and for a small agricultural community like Barangay Magtangtang with a population of some 20,000, these donations tided them over – especially so as the giving of relief goods was consistent and regular. Auxtero found the regression of values to a dependence on dole-outs and materialism as inconsistent and inappropriate for people afflicted with disaster and tragedy.

In what was beginning to appear as a materialistic attitude towards dole-outs, residents had reportedly become apprehensive about not being able to avail of relief goods if they went back to their homes while some unscrupulously tried to maneuver their way so they could get more even after their share was given. After the quake razed homes, did the quake also shatter values of sharing and stewardship?

Values Formation

While the people of Danao and the residents of Barangay Magtangtang are highly appreciative and especially grateful about the assistance given to them, Auxtero said that spiritual and social interventions are equally critical in healing the trauma and restoring people to an edified way of life. Auxtero said that it would have been opportune and well timed for values formation sessions and the Word of God to have been shared in the evacuation camps within the first 24 hours of the impact. He said that he is saddened that no one among disaster risk reduction teams from government and non-government organizations came to give them the Word of God nor considered their spiritual needs.

A March 25, 2013 order from the Department of Health stipulates the creation of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Cluster under the auspices of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. The mental and psychosocial support cluster is tasked to be a proactive leader in the delivery of well-coordinated, integrated and responsive services to prevent and reduce prevalence of negative mental health and psychosocial consequences of emergencies and disasters. They are also responsible for enhancing community resiliency to psychosocial impacts of emergencies and disasters so that emergency and disaster-affected communities are able to develop skills and coping mechanisms in adapting to a new environment including the optimal use of assistance provided. Thus far, it is still vague and uncertain as to what kind of messages and message content this cluster has communicated. It is equally unclear if this cluster has come up with communication strategies that are appropriate and sensitive to the psychosocial and spiritual needs of each barangay.

A young boy, whose house was completely razed leaving a dead wire swinging from what may have been the roof asked, "If God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to redeem man from his sins, did the same God send earthquakes?" it may be difficult for young boys and children to understand Christmas inside evacuation camps. And even if adults can have materialistic attitudes toward Christmas, it is just as difficult to know Christmas inside evacuation camps where they are exposed to insects, crawling and creeping animals like snakes and harsh changes in weather. Perhaps the greatest gift that the mental health and psychosocial support cluster can render to quake victims is to listen to the pulse and hushed voices of children. It is the gift of being able to devise risk communication strategy that incorporates spiritual nutrition with restorative and healing content. Consulting and including preachers in the cluster could help.

Then again while the giving out of relief goods will eventually have to stop, psychosocial and spiritual interventions can't. (FREEMAN)