Master of disaster

Just when you thought that the heartache was too much to bear, there is still something that you can do.

“When disaster strikes, people can help by assessing the damage,” says Jose “Boy” Bersales. “If the people, together with their local leaders, can start to do their assessment, it will be easier for us to validate information. Data like how many are injured? How many houses are totally damaged? How many are partially damaged? How many children are hurt?”

For people like Boy, information is vital and the list rattles on: “What are the special needs of the families because of the disaster? Are there evacuation centers? How long do they expect to stay in the evacuation center? Where are they getting their food? Is there ongoing sickness? How many school buildings are destroyed? Is the government able to provide for the needs of the families? Any NGOs helping?”

As the director of emergency affairs for World Vision, Boy sends out their assessment teams to note what damage areas have suffered. With typhoon Frank, for example, the teams realized that the damage was so great that they needed to help 25,000 families right away.

“Flooding was even worse in Aklan because all the facilities like telephone lines and water systems were all down. Aside from distribution of goods, we had to establish a children’s psychological center so that they could have counselling through play. They are so traumatized by storms now.”

Even deciding how to distribute food needs balance, as the international group found out. “We give each family 25 kilos of rice so that for two weeks they do not have to stand in line waiting for their food. We get the local community involved in cleaning up the debris on the highways and roads and give them part of their salary in food and part in cash,” Boy says.

Sometimes, they get it wrong, he admits, for example when they were distributing Vienna sausage to the Aetas, who asked them what was in the can. “Food like hotdogs,” Boy ventured to explain. This upset the Aetas so much because dogs are their most loyal companions.

World Vision leaders are used to being on the spot when major disasters strike, and Boy is often a witness. “The worst disasters that I have seen include Mount Pinatubo and the July 1990 Baguio earthquake. Media focused on Baguio and the collapse of the Hyatt Hotel, but the other parts of the country, from Nueva Vizcaya to Dagupan, had so much damage. Buildings crumbling, people trapped inside, homes destroyed, families in agony.”  Although Boy was at that time only three months into his job as a relief and rehabilitation coordinator, he had to set aside his nausea and sorrow so he could get to work.

“I slept on a boat on the lake in Burnham Park because we needed to feel if there were more earthquakes. My teams were stationed on Marcos Highway and Kennon and as soon as the DPWH said that the roads were open, we brought food, mats, blankets, flashlights,” Boy recalls.

What is it that inspires him to attend to the needs of victims? After 24 years in World Vision, Boy has seen so much destruction and ruin. “Salaries cannot compensate for the agony that we go through. I have observed a lot of disasters and in most situations, I notice that the best qualities of the human person lights up.”

With tears in his eyes, this 51-year-old veteran of helping survivors relates, “Like in the Infante landslide, our way of helping people receive their goods was by going from house to house to verify who were the families affected. But when my team was conducting the counting, there was this one mother who left the area with her family to seek refuge and shelter elsewhere. When it was time for distribution, she came but she did not have the stub. She said she did not register herself but she needed something, too.”

Boy had a dilemma. Their team had packed just enough to give to each one who had a stub, yet here was this mother asking for help. If they gave her the goods, then someone with a stub would not receive it. He struggled with the solution and prayed, finally resolving it this way: “I called all 400 recipients. I presented the matter to them and the mother said, ‘The most I need is water because I am not a lactating mother and I need water for formula.’

“‘If that is the case,’ somebody said, ‘I will give you all the water that I have.’” The mother ended up with two tricycles of water.

Boy went to the back of the building and cried.

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E-mail: aurorawilson@gmail.com