PRC Bohol recovery operation comes to an end

As I’ve written several times, whenever there’s news of a fire, an earthquake, floods and accidents,  one of the first agencies to rush to the scene is the Philippine Red Cross. Thus one of the first batches of rescuers to come to the aid of residents in Bohol who were left homeless after an earthquake that hit Central Visayas on Oct. 15, 2013 were men and women wearing the signature Red Cross symbol on their chests.

PRC staff and volunteers provided emergency response through rescue and transport of casualties in hospitals, first aid management, provision of food and necessary non-food items for displaced families in evacuation centers, clean water, health and hygiene promotion, and welfare assistance such as psychosocial support, guidance and counseling, tracing and restoration of family links, and referrals.

The earthquake had left 225 people dead, almost a thousand injured, thousands of people displaced, and damaged 73,000 structures including homes, buildings, roads, bridges, churches, air and sea ports, hospitals, and local government structures in both Cebu and Bohol.

Pablito and Carmelita Taghap, 66 and 65 years old respectively, who lived in Cahayag, Tubigon, and Bohol, were left homeless after the earthquake totally damaged their house, along with the other homes and structures in their community. With no  place to go, the couple lived in a makeshift tent for a while, which made their situation very difficult especially when typhoon Yolanda struck Bohol the following month.

When PRC  stepped in to provide core shelter and shelter repair assistance, the Taghaps  were among the selected families who became beneficiaries of the core shelter project.  Instead of just standing by and watching workers put up a building for them, Pablito, a farmer, and Carmelita, a tailor, actively assisted the skilled workers in building their home. Thus because making people participate in a program designed for their rehabilitation is a PRC policy.  After their shelter was built, the couple thanked PRC for their new home, which they said they would not be able to build by themselves from their meager earnings.

Pablito and Carmelita are just two of the individuals reached by the recovery projects of the PRC and partners in the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement in Bohol. A year and four months after, PRC’s recovery operations in Bohol ended last month  after completing all the agency’s target projects for all affected communities in the province.

At the end of PRC’s recovery efforts in Bohol, a total of 304 core shelters or full houses have been constructed. To help build damaged houses and structures, 100 carpenters and masons were given training and 1,700 shelter repair kits were provided through conditional cash grants.

Along with the construction and repair of damaged structures, the PRC also focused on hygiene and sanitation in schools and communities with the construction of school latrines, supported with hygiene and sanitation trainings in schools and communities. Ten water and sanitation (WatSan) latrines were constructed in public schools, while a total of 2,883 pupils were reached through children hygiene and sanitation transformation (CHAST) sessions. To ensure that proper hygiene and sanitation are observed in schools, 80 individuals were given CHAST training for school-based WatSan committees.

Similarly, families and health volunteers participated in participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation (PHAST) sessions to help prevent the spread of diseases in communities affected by the earthquake. A total of 6,025 families and 96 community health volunteers participated in PHAST training emergency earthquake response.

At the completion of the core shelter program, officials from the PRC and partner societies from the Red Cross Movement were at the turnover ceremonies. In photographs, beneficiary Carmelita Taghap is shown proudly standing  in front of  her new home with PRC chair Richard Gordon, Gwendolyn Pang, PRC secretary general, Marcel Fortier, head of delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to the Philippines, Mijanur Rahman, IFRC delegate to Bohol, and Joseph Randy Loy, OIC Red Cross Bohol chapter.

With the Red Cross having become one of my advocacies, expect more stories on the life-saving organizations in this column.

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What do the youths say about sex education? Nearly all of young adults I talked with  said  it should be taught early.  I received an emailed letter from a Christine Agus, a 17-year-old student at Mapua Institute of Technology, stating her view on the topic. With her permission, I am reproducing her letter here.

“Hello ma’am. A pleasant evening. I have read your article  about teenage pregnancies way back when and I still want to say that I am also a teenager, turning 18 this year and it’s no joke that our teenage pregnancy rates in the Philippines are increasing rapidly. Ever since I stepped into my teenage years, I have read many articles, watched news, and documentaries pertaining to this matter. It is predicted that in mid-2015, our population will hit 101.4 million and teenagers will be contributing to this big increase in our population.

“I agree with some of your points, but I believe that teenagers must be taught to have safe sex. I strongly agree that they should wait until marriage to make love with their partners, but I think teenagers do it because of several factors like peer pressure, teenage drinking, absent parents and  lack of knowledge, among other things.

“Guiding them properly and implementing the Reproductive Health Law will be of big help to these misguided teenagers because then, institutions  and schools will be teaching students the disadvantages or harm in engaging in sexual activities at a very young age. Also, television shows and other watching aides will be show the disadvantages of teenage pregnancy.

“I also believe that this issue should be solved by the parents, the government, and concerned citizens. Parents should always teach their children about the  consequences of premarital sex and keep in touch with their children who are studying in schools far from them.

“The government must strongly implement rules, for example, in prohibiting  minors from drinking beer and hard liquor at bars. At drunken stages, teenagers can indulge in sex. Establishments are observed to ask young people how old they are, and not require proofs like a school ID that shows their birthdates. This means if I am 15 years old, I can tell the bar owner that I’m 18, and voila, I can enter the bar and join a drinking spree.

“Thank you so much, ma’am. God bless.” — Christine “Tintin” Agus

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