ST. BERNARD, Southern
Leyte – At least 646 peasant families from four villages benefited
from the relief effort launched here by the
Leyte
Center
for Development, Inc. (LCDE) on April 6.
The beneficiaries came
from Guinsaugon, Ayahag, Sug-angon and Nueva Esperanza in the said
town who were displaced from their villages by the killer landslide
that occurred last February 17. They are presently housed in two
evacuation centers located at the town proper.
The LCDE distributed
food packs, which consisted of rice, fresh vegetables, dressed
chicken, mongo, dried fish, and other vital provisions such as spices,
salt, sugar, toothpaste, soap, beddings and kitchen utensils. The
relief aid was granted by the German Church Agency and the Citizens’
Disaster Response Center.
According to Jazmin
Jerusalem, LCDE Executive Director, they launched the relief mission
in response to earlier reports that the government already stopped
giving relief aid to the evacuees.
“The relief mission
was timely since the local government unit already stopped giving
relief assistance to the victims of the killer landslide. Since March
14, all the donations that have been pouring in came from private
agencies and nongovernmental organizations,” she said.
Jerusalem added that
aside from the relief mission, they are also planning to conduct other
disaster response activities for the victims within this month. These
include trainings on disaster management, and rehabilitation
assistance such as farm tools dispersal and food-for-work projects.
So far, this was the
second relief mission the LCDE has launched since the start of the
year. The agency had just extended relief assistance last March 17 to
198 poor peasant families from four communities in Motiong and San
Jose de Buan, who fled their homes following incidents of alleged
military abuses.
The Leyte Center for
Development, Inc. is a disaster response and development-oriented
nongovernmental organization that extends services in Eastern Visayas.
Its programs range from disaster preparedness and mitigation,
emergency response, rehabilitation assistance, advocacy and community
health. The agency has already served more than 24,000 families from
454 communities in 31 municipalities in the region.
