DSWD getting more donations for Yolanda relief effort

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) continues to receive donations from foreign governments and organizations to assist families affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda.

Last Monday, the DSWD Disaster Risk Reduction and Response Operations Office headed by director Thelsa Biolena accepted a $1,642,082.04 check donation from Thailand through Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto del Rosario.

Thai Ambassador Prasas Prasasvinitchai witnessed the turnover ceremony.

Office of Asian and Pacific Affairs executive director Bernardita Catalla also handed another $200 check to Biolena. The donation is from the United Nations Development Program Lao PDR resident representative Minh Pham and International Fund for Agricultural Development Lao PDR country manager Stefania Dina.

As of Jan. 21, the DSWD has received a total of P72,418,737.60 in local donations and $17,672,759.55 in foreign donations for Yolanda survivors.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the donations stood at $15 million and P67 million at the start of the year.

DSWD has continually expressed its gratitude and appreciation for the initiatives of both foreign and local donors.

Disasters vis-à-vis poverty

Meanwhile, Sen. Loren Legarda, during a high-level forum on strengthening disaster risk insurance in the country, reiterated the correlation between disasters and poverty.

“Despite our impressive economic growth, our poverty incidence hardly changed. Poverty and inequalities worsen as natural hazards and climate change constantly affect the poor and keep them trapped in a vicious cycle of risk and poverty,” she said.

Legarda organized the forum in partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Legarda, who is also chairperson of the Senate committee on climate change, said national and local governments, along with the private sector, should learn from the lessons of past disasters.

“Filipinos are known to be a resilient lot. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of our infrastructure, schools, our cities and even our economy,” she said.

“Disaster after disaster, we always say, we need to build better. Building better, however, will only be meaningful of the standards we use, comply with resiliency benchmarks,” she added. “Let us not restore risks and vulnerabilities that existed before each storm.”

Legarda noted that the National Economic and Development Authority estimated the damage from Super Typhoon Yolanda at P571 billion.

She also pointed to a study by the Asian Development Bank that poverty incidence in Easterm Visayas increased from 41.2 percent in 2012 to 55.7 percent in 2013.

Legarda said disaster risk reduction strategies should include measures not only to prevent loss of lives but also to protect the things that would sustain life, referring to sources of livelihood and employment.

“Poverty breeds disaster vulnerability, where those who have least in life risk the most. Thus, as disasters become more prevalent, the higher is the right of the poor to social protection, and the higher is the duty of government to reduce disaster risk in pursuit of resilient development. Disaster risk reduction is social justice in action,” she said.

“Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation must be closely linked to development – the kind of development that does not create new risks and promotes resilient investments,” she said. – With Christina Mendez