LCDE brings relief aid to fire victims

By RANDY ANTONI
September 20, 2006

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte  – In the interest of service to the needy and less fortunate, the Leyte Center for Development, Inc. (LCDE) launched a relief delivery operation Sunday for the fire victims here in the city.

At least 201 families were given relief packs, which consisted of rice, canned goods, salt, sugar and sleeping mat during the activity. The beneficiaries were victims of the fire that swept through the crowded communities in Sabang District last Tuesday afternoon and left 1,706 families or 7,895 people homeless.

Jazmin Jerusalem, LCDE Executive Director, said that the relief effort was conducted to address the food needs of the victims.

“It was our response to the request for food assistance of the victims, who have been experiencing food shortage since Tuesday. We heard reports that the health of the victims, especially that of the children and the elderly, further deteriorates due to this problem,” she said.

Jerusalem said that it was only after more than a decade that disaster-affected victims residing in the city benefited again from the agency’s services. She said that they usually deliver their services in remote disaster-stricken communities in the region since it is where poverty is extreme and government support services are nil.

“This time, however, we gave immediate assistance to the victims despite the fact that they live near government centers, where they can immediately ask for help from public officials. The fire left the victims economically dislocated and most of them come from the urban poor, who would indubitably find it hard to recover quickly from the disaster due to their lack of economic resources,” Jerusalem said.

The relief mission for the fire victims was the first of a series of disaster response activities, which the LCDE will launch this September and in the following months. Aside from emergency response, the agency has also plans of giving rehabilitation assistance and disaster management trainings to the affected communities.

To date, this was the seventh relief mission the LCDE has launched this year. The last relief effort it conducted was in Las Navas in Northern Samar, where it served two remote peasant communities affected by armed conflict.